Last night, the Denver Nuggets had a chance to finish off the Dallas Mavericks for the franchise’s first ever sweep, ABA or NBA. Instead, they lost 119-117 as they now go home to try and finish Dallas off in the thin air. While many analysts still believe the Nuggets will finish the job eventually (history doesn’t lie; no NBA team has ever come back from 3-0 down), the loss did raise an old issue with this team; how mature are the Denver Nuggets?

It was a given before the game that these two teams had no love lost for each other, and boy did it show last night; seven technical fouls and two flagrant fouls say plenty of their feelings. All of this coming in the wake of Mavs owner Mark Cuban making insensitive comments towards Kenyon Martin’s mother (depending on what you heard, he called Martin a punk or a thug; Cuban has since apoligized to Martin’s mother). There was one incident, however, that makes me very concerned, and it involves Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony.

In the second quarter, Anthony and Antoine Wright battled under the basket for a rebound, and their arms got entangled. After Wright seemed to refuse to untangle, Anthony let loose a shot that, on replay, connected to Wright’s face. While it didn’t appear to be an outright punch, this only raises the issue of Anthony’s attitude. Remember, Anthony nearly started a riot in New York when he sucker punched another player, and was promptly suspended by the league. The Nuggets can ill afford to lose their best scorer for any length of time. More importantly, this is not the way the supposed leader of the team should be acting in what amounts to an inconsequential playoff game.

But the real reason for the post is this; today, while listening to the hacks on ESPN, they bounced around the idea that the Nuggets were distracted from winning because they were only concerned with Cuban’s comments. If so, then the Los Angeles Lakers or Houston Rockets shouldn’t have much problem in the conference finals. Because if a team allows itself to get preoccupied with an owner’s words, they aren’t championship material. Admittedly, Anthony, Martin and Nuggets coach George Karl were heavily talking about Cuban before the game. Cuban must be a master manipulator if that caused Denver to lose.

Will Anthony get suspended? I don’t really know for sure, but if a flagrant two foul is hitting a player in the face, then at the very least, give him a fine. But more importantly, if the Nuggets want to show that they are true contenders, they need to better handle adversity. If they’re letting one person’s words get to them, what will happen if they lose to  the Lakers because Phil Jackson said that he agrees with Cuban and that they are thugs? Or if Rick Adelman said the same thing? Show some mettle, Denver! And Chauncey Billups (the commander-in-chief for the offense, as TNT showed in their broadcast) must assume command, because it appears Anthony isn’t ready for that role yet.

This blog appeared on the basektball-related site "The Basketball Oracle". Visit www.thebasketballoracle.wordpress.com to see this and other great basektball articles!