Chris Marlowe's New Blog Entry on Altitude.tv entitled The Agony of Defeat

Here is Chris Marlowe's New Blog Entry on Altitude.tv entitled The Agony of Defeat:

The Agony of Defeat

For me, Friday night’s defeat at Memphis was the most gut wrenching loss of the season. To come all the way back from a 23 point 3rd quarter deficit, take the lead, and then lose on a tip in at the buzzer was heart breaking.

In the locker room after the game the mood was somber. There was a beautiful birthday cake for Al Harrington, but no one wanted to be the first to cut into it. Everyone was happy with the effort of the comebackbut dispirited that the Nuggets couldn’t quite pull off the miracle.

The locker room cleared out quickly (as fast an exit as possible), and it was on to the buses to head to the airport.

There are two buses: the players’ ride one and the media is on the other. Former Nuggets Coach Doug Moe once nicknamed the media bus “the Schemmel bus” after radio announcer Jerry Schemmel. Jerry is no longer on the road with us, but his bus still rolls on!

It’s funny—when the team wins it always seems like the television broadcast on Altitude is a success. All the little things, flubs, biffs, upside down pins, seem to disappear. When you lose, however, you feel like you somehow contributed to the loss. That night on the bus, you could see our crew soul searching a bit, trying to figure out how we could have gotten the team over the hump.

By the way, if the Nuggets had won it, it would have gone down as one of the greatest comebacks in Nuggets history. I know because I looked up COMEBACKS at halftime. It’s on page 301 of the Nuggets Media Guide.The largest halftime lead overcome in Denver history was 19 against Kansas City in 1981. The largest 4th quarter lead overcome was 17a gainst Seattle in 2008. Our comeback, not listed exactly, was from 23 down with 10 minutes to go in the 3rd quarter.

The plane ride to Oklahoma City was uneventful. As I sat down I saw rookie Jordan Hamilton carrying the uneaten Al Harrington birthdaycake to his seat. Part of the rookie chores I guess. The flight was too short to watch a movie, so I decided to finish my book “The Whole Truth” by David Baldacci. It was a good thriller with the bad guy getting disintegrated by a nuke in the end. A must read!

We landed late in OKC and headed to the “Haunted Hotel” for our stay. I won’t tell you its name for fear of ghostly retribution, but you can Google “Haunted Hotel in OKC” and there it will be. By the way, you’re safe as long as you don’t stay on the 10th floor where all the ghostly activity seems to take place. Me, I stay in my room or go directly to thefitness center where it is safe. Ever see an apparition working out?

Interestingly, the New Orleans Hornets are also staying at the same hotel. They beat the New York Knicks and Jeremy Lin on Friday nightand then flew here to OKC for a game with the Thunder on Monday. I guess they could have stayed in NY for an extra day, but what fun is that when you can hang with the Nuggets and see Casper for three days?

Finally, I was talking to their TV play-by-play man Bob Light—he thinks that the Knicks, with the addition of JR Smith, will be loaded with enough talent to make a legit playoff run. Personally, I’m not so sure—adding Baron Davis and JR, plus trying to reintegrate Carmelo Anthonywith Lin and the gang, could prove explosive. Like a Baldacci book.