Nuggets Will Throw Run ‘n Hope Offense at the Lakers Today

The situation facing the Denver Nuggets is not, as Coach Doug Moe said, a “no-hoper.” In fact, this is a wonderful time to be a Nugget.

Sure, the Nuggets have to play the heavily favored Lakers in the Western Conference final, beginning at 12:30 p.m. today at the Forum, but the Nuggets clearly are not a team to get down on themselves.

Moe does not allow no-hopers. He believes in life, good times, freedom of expression and the release of tension through shooting basketballs.

Take a look at Moe and his Nuggets. It’s a character study. If they didn’t play basketball so well, there would always be sit-coms.

The Nuggets are very much like their coach in the way they go about their business. They’re irreverent, kind of casual and perhaps slightly looser than the tie Moe wears as though it were a cloth necklace.

Why, it wasn’t until this season, Moe’s ninth as a head coach, that he even wore ties to games. When he was a rookie coach at San Antonio in 1976, the league had to fine Moe because of his appearance. Besides not wearing a tie, Moe also didn’t wear a jacket.

Eventually, though, he gave in to convention. Now, he owns a road, as well as a home tie, and the Nuggets wound up winning 52 games.

Down deep, however, he really hasn’t changed much, Moe said.

“When I was in San Antonio, we won 52 games (1977-78) and got to the conference final,” he said. “I was the same guy then as I am now. What the hell’s the difference?

“I still try to make light of things,” he said. “My outlook is sunny and bright, but there is also a chance of clouds and rain.”

The weather report for this best-of-seven series calls for pointstorms. At the very least, it is an interesting matchup of quick and quicker, of Alex English and James Worthy, and of Magic Johnson and Wonderful Willie White.

Wonderful Willie White?

Perhaps you do not know of Wonderful Willie White (WWW), but he is the rookie from Tennessee Chattanooga who has replaced the other nicknamed guard, Lafayette (Fat) Lever, in the Nuggets’ backcourt.

Moe knows all about Wonderful Willie. When Lever injured his knee in Game 3 at Salt Lake City and then underwent an arthroscopic examination, White was pressed into a starting role in Game 4.

Wonderful Willie, who gave himself his own nickname, quickly showed the characteristics of a true Nugget.

“After two minutes, he was totally exhausted,” Moe said. “I couldn’t believe it. It was one of the funniest sights I have ever seen. In practice, the guy never wants out and gets mad at me when I take him out.”

Anyway, after two minutes, White was hyperventilating. He said he couldn’t breathe. Moe looked at White and offered some great coaching advice.

“OK, you just sit here and practice,” Moe said.

Yes, these really are wonderful times for the Nuggets, who can give you the willies and keep winning playoff games.

But they also do it with a certain amount of flair, as when center Wayne Cooper checked into a playoff game still wearing the top half of his warmups.

“My man Coop,” Moe said. “But he’s improved. If Jack (Ramsay) was still coaching him at Portland, he’d have gone in with both his tops and bottoms on. So you see, under my tutelage, the guy has improved 50%.”

So, the Nuggets are loosey-goosey. Do not get the idea, however, that the Lakers think playing Denver is fun and games. Coach Pat Riley knows that Moe’s personality suits the team he coaches, but Riley also realizes that the Nuggets won’t show up at the Forum expecting to lose.

“They play the way Doug wants them to,” Riley said. “He has created a real relaxed, offbeat environment for them, and they’ve clearly prospered in it.

“They think they can beat us. They really do.”

The coaches agree that the Nuggets’ chances against the Lakers depend on the level of aggressiveness that Denver displays and how well the Lakers respond.

There is also the matter of defending against Denver’s high-scoring forwards, English and Calvin Natt.

“If we get things wild enough, maybe something good can happen to us,” Moe said.

“I don’t think anyone here is fooling themselves and thinking we’re better than the Lakers. We’ve got to play great. But not only that, we have to be so aggressive that we force them not to play up to their potential. Because, let’s face it, if both teams play up to their potential, we’re in trouble.

“For us to do anything in a seven-game series with the Lakers, we have to play out of our minds. And even then, you’re not sure. They’re that good.”

Laker Notes The Lakers announced Friday that although today’s game is not sold out, arrangements were made to lift the TV blackout so Channel 2 could carry it. . . . Game 2 Tuesday night at 8 at the Forum will be televised by ON-TV, and Game 3 Friday at Denver will be televised by CBS at 11:30 p.m. Game 4 the following Sunday at Denver will be televised live by CBS at 3 p.m. . . . Denver guard Lafayette Lever may be back for Games 3 and 4 in Denver, despite his injured knee. The Nuggets figure that since Lever had only an arthroscopic examination and not surgery, he can return in this series. . . . Laker Coach Pat Riley applauded Denver’s trade with Portland. It brought Lever, Calvin Natt, and Wayne Cooper for Kiki Vandeweghe. “They stepped up in class and it showed,” he said. “They realized last season they had gone as far as they could with what they had.”