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The NBA / Thomas Bonk : Moe Thinks Nuggets Could Give Lakers a Run for the Money

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Denver Coach Doug Moe says there is no team in the Western Conference, not even the Lakers, that can outrun his Nuggets.

“We can run better and longer than anybody, so we can force the tempo,” said Moe, who gave his appraisal of the Nuggets’ chances should they face the Lakers in the playoffs.

“They (the Lakers) can’t outrun us, but they can out fast-break us,” Moe said.

There is, of course, a difference. Moe admits that the Lakers have the best fast break in the NBA, but he said that for pure out-and-out running, the Nuggets are better than anyone else.

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In order to beat the Lakers, the Nuggets have three different strategies, Moe said.

“We’ll run, we’ll run and then we’ll run,” he said.

“If we both have to set up on offense, we have no shot because they’ve got Kareem,” Moe said. “To me, that’s the biggest advantage they’ve got. Running evens the talent up because guys get tired.”

Moe also said that the Nuggets have a good chance of not even getting as far as a playoff matchup with the Lakers. Denver is in the same bracket with the San Antonio Spurs and the Houston Rockets.

The first odds released on the NBA playoffs have Phoenix, the Lakers’ first-round opponent, at 200-1 to win the title.

The Suns have the longest odds of any team in the playoffs. Boston is rated even to repeat, and the Lakers are 6-5 choices.

The playoffs haven’t started, but rumors of coaching changes have. Here is the latest:

Chicago goes for a college coach, Kevin Loughery moves from Chicago to New York, Hubie Brown from New York to New Jersey and Stan Albeck from New Jersey to the Clippers.

Other speculation has Jack Ramsay leaving Portland for Seattle, where Lenny Wilkens would be fired, and in another stunner, Philadelphia 76er owner Harold Katz fires Billy Cunningham to hire Villanova’s Rollie Massimino.

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The playoffs are supposed to bear absolutely no resemblance to what happened in the season series, but there could be some clues from the matchups.

In the Western conference, the Lakers were 5-1 with Phoenix and Dallas was 4-1 with Portland. The Spurs split with Denver, and Houston split with Utah.

Boston should have an easy time with Cleveland in the East, based on the Celtics’ 6-0 sweep of the regular-season series. New Jersey was 5-1 with Detroit and Philadelphia 4-2 with Washington.

Milwaukee and Chicago split their six-game series.

There were a flurry of last-minute roster moves to get ready for the playoffs. The most important had Washington activating center Jeff Ruland.

Boston replaced guard Rick Carlisle on the active roster with swingman M.L. Carr. At Philadelphia, backup center Clemon Johnson and guard Andrew Toney were activated and center Steve Hayes was released.

San Antonio guard Alvin Robertson will miss the playoffs because of an injury, but he has been replaced on the Spurs’ roster by guards Linton Townes and David Thirdkill.

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The two biggest names who are injured and won’t play in the playoffs are the Nets’ Otis Birdsong and the Suns’ Walter Davis.

Yes, Chris Mullin and Patrick Ewing can still wear their T-shirts in the pros, but only if T-shirts are part of the standard team uniform.

Houston’s Akeem Olajuwon, on what he has learned in the pros: “If you stand there too long and do not throw a punch, you lose your teeth.”

The Chicago Bulls seem intent on cleaning house. General Manager Rod Thorn is gone, and Kevin Loughery is telling friends he won’t be far behind.

Then what? The best bet appears to be truculent guard Quintin Dailey, who angered new owner Jerry Reinsdorf recently by eating a snack while sitting on the bench during a game.

Dailey also got himself into hot water earlier this season when he failed to show up for practice and then missed a game.

Dailey didn’t help himself with Loughery and assistant coach Fred Carter after they had questioned Dailey’s shot selection.

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“Did those guys think I didn’t have a TV set when I was a kid?” Dailey said. “They were two of the worst shot selectors to put on a uniform. They’d throw the ball up from anywhere. And now they’re telling me not to take crazy shots.”

Reinsdorf, when asked whether Dailey had taken his last crazy shot in a Bulls uniform, said: “That decision has already been made, and it wasn’t very hard.”

Dailey might seem to be a bargain. He has two more guaranteed years left on his contract and makes $250,000 this season, $275,000 next season and $300,000 the next.

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