My jewels, blue and yellow/ The type of shit that makes 'em call you Carmelo

Scattered Ashes

Nuggets 97 - Trailblazers 94
For whatever reason, Carmelo made his opening statement of the first week backwards. Wednesday night we had the exclamation point, the dramatically decisive dunk that still has the northern rim at the Pepsi Center trembling. In this game, we got the monologue that deserved that dunk.
Like the "Always be closing" speech from Glengarry Glen Ross, the Melo issued a direct invective to the Trailblazers, aggressively and authoritatively asserting his absolute autonomy on their asses. 41 points, 19 in the fourth quarter of a corset-tight, hold your breathe battle between two divisional foes. In so many of the Blazers games Brandon Roy is their edge, the one player that everyone knows and sees is the best player on the court. But whenever the Blazers get together with the Nugs, Carmelo reminds them that in this division there is one king, the best player on the defending Northwest champs. He may have scored more at times in the past, but in this game he was precise, patient and profoundly productive.
Melo led his team, setting an example for the rest of the Nugs (most of whom were struggling all night) and showing them that you don't always win like they did on Wednesday: running a bigger team out of the gym. Sometimes the NBA turns into the NFL and when there's nowhere to hide, the true winners reveal themselves. Using the noise of the home crowd as a war chant for a mile high massacre is a fine way to win, but revealing your best when the tightrope of a close fourth quarter is trembling and twitching, that's the time when teams learn how much champ they have in them.