NBA Playoffs: Head Coaches George Karl, Scott Brooks Know Each Other Well

It's that time of year again NBA fans, tip-off of the 2011 NBA Playoffs is here!

The Oklahoma City Thunder versus the Denver Nuggets have drawn each other—two teams no one in the NBA wants to meet in a seven-game series.

Both teams can score lights-out, Denver leads the league in points per game (107.5) while Oklahoma City is fifth (104.8) and neither team ranks in the top 15 defensively, but those numbers don't tell the entire story.

Each one of these squads improved at the trade deadline—OKC added an intimidating defensive presence in Kendrick Perkins and the Nuggets traded away Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups, among other scorers, for five could-be starters who have completely transformed how the team plays.

Denver's defensive effort has increased incredibly since the trade; the Nuggets' steals per game are up 1.02 in the last 10 games compared to the rest of the season when their blocks are up .5 per game. To wit, Ty Lawson is a steal machine, with 1.44 per game since the trade and three games with at least four steals. Nene's blocks have increased to 1.2 per contest and Danillo Gallinari had five blocks in one game—his length helps him frustrate any opponent.

Both the Thunder and Nuggets benefited from their last-second trades; they are now poised for a playoff run.

These are two extremely athletic teams; they love to run the floor for baskets in transition, they both have high-fliers who throw down emphatic dunks and both teams play physically on the defensive end.

While how these two teams play is similar, the talent seems to be one-sided.

The Thunder are star-studded, the Nuggets are star-less.

Oklahoma City boasts Kevin Durant. Nearly the MVP of the NBA last season, he's the back-to-back reigning scoring leader of the league. Durant is flashy, his shot is pure from anywhere on the hardwood and he's grown comfortable driving to the hoop.

Bringing the thunderous slam dunks is Russell Westbrook, the Thunder's young point guard. He's also a deft shooter from the mid-range (44.2 percent) and he's worked hard on improving from beyond the arc as well.

Add in Perkins, and the Thunder arguably have three youthful stars, and leading the way is a young coach, Scott Brooks.

Beyond the player matchups, which are exciting and interesting up and down both lineups, the coaching battle is possibly the most intriguing of the playoffs.

Brooks was named the NBA Coach of the Year in 2009-10 in his first season as head coach, for turning around a terrible Thunder team and taking them to the playoffs for the first time since the 2004-05 season.

He even improved on their successes this season, from 50 wins to 55 and from eighth place in the West last year to fourth this year and a Northwest division title.

The Thunder ripped the division crown from the back-to-back Northwest champion Nuggets this year, and Brooks knows about how much winning the highly competitive Northwest means, because he once coached in Denver.

Scott Brooks coached under George Karl on the Denver Nuggets from 2003-06, and they both know each other quite well.

It's the seasoned veteran coach, with two and a half decades of NBA coaching experience, against one of the brightest young coaches who just completed only his second full season as a head man.

Karl is the old master while Brooks is the young grasshopper.

Undoubtedly, Brooks learned much of what he knows about coaching from George Karl—he was the understudy of the longtime legend.

But, perhaps no other coach knows exactly what Karl wants to do on the court and his philosophy than Scott Brooks. Likewise, Karl understands Brooks' style of play.

This only adds another layer of interest to possibly the most exciting series of the first round. There will be a chess match of sorts as Brooks and Karl exchange strategic blows, attempting to exploit favorable matchups wherever possible.

And Karl has something special to throw at Brooks and Oklahoma City if he has a majority of his players healthy—this new Nuggets squad is a complete team that averages five players per night in double digits scoring.

Instead of having to rely upon a star or two, Karl can pick and choose who takes the last possession or last-second shot for the Nuggets depending on who is hot that particular night.

"We don't have a closer that's going to make a big-time shot, but we have guys that are ready for the challenge," coach George Karl said.

Guys like Gallinari, Arron Afflalo, J.R. Smith, Raymond Felton, Wilson Chandler, Lawson, and the list goes on.

George Karl, who was lost last year down the stretch due to his second bout with cancer, is back and with more life on the bench than he had before.

Karl's new team, one that plays the game the "right way," a team that heeds his long-reaching basketball wisdom and advice, a team that plays extremely hard on both ends of the court, has injected him with new found exuberance and excitement for coaching.

"They've been incredibly good," George Karl said of his Nuggets team. "The thing I see is the defensive commitment maybe is as good as it's ever been. It seems like they have an attitude about stopping people."

After beating the Lakers on April 3, Karl said to the Denver Post's Dave Krieger, "The intangibles that win games are out there more often than I ever remember," Karl said. "The thing I've seen on the team is that it's solid. We haven't been solid since I've been here. We've been up and down, wild and crazy, good and bad. Beat anybody anytime by 20, lose to anybody anytime by 20. I don't think you're going to see that."

George Karl, the grizzled coach, is coaching with the enthusiasm of a man half his age, but with all the knowledge necessary to be a leader at this high a level, and into the post season.

Karl has coached an NBA team to the playoffs in 18 of the last 19 seasons, including three Conference Finals appearances and a NBA Finals appearance; he knows what it takes to win in the playoffs.

For Brooks, this will be his second playoff appearance as a coach, but that doesn't mean he doesn't have the experience of coaching with Karl—this will be a spectacular series because of the players on the court and the coaches calling the plays on the bench.

Nuggets injury updates:

Ty Lawson, who injured his ankle Wednesday night against the Jazz, was running today in practice and says he will play Sunday in game one.

Fellow starter, shooting guard Arron Afflalo, said he may not be 100 percent but he will play in game one as well. Afflalo has been nursing an injured hamstring for going on a month now and he's continuing to try to get healthy so he can contribute, especially on defense.

Backup center Timofey Mozgov, who was injured when he was flopped into, is still nursing a bum ankle and sore knee and will not play in game one. Although, he did say he would try to play game two and he “feels better every day” according to Chris Dempsey of the Denver Post.

Series Schedule:

Game 1: 4/17 7:30 p.m. MDT in OKC

Game 2: 4/20 6 p.m. in OKC

Game 3: 4/23 8 p.m. in DEN

Game 4: 4/25 8:30 p.m. in DEN

Game 5: 4/27 TBD in OKC

Game 6: 4/29 TBD in DEN

Game 7: 5/1 TBD in OKC

Rich Kurtzman is a freelance journalist actively seeking a career in journalism. Along with being the CSU Rams Examiner, Kurtzman is a Denver Nuggets and NBA Featured Columnist for bleacherreport.com, the Colorado/Utah Regional Correspondent for stadiumjourney.com, a weekly contributor to milehighhoops.com and a contributor to milehighreport.com writing on the Denver Broncos.

Rich also heads up PR for K-Biz and Beezy, a Colorado-based rap group. 

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