Dantley making best of tough situation

Dantley, a Hall of Fame player, welcomed the opportunity to take on more responsibility, but his enthusiasm was tempered by the fact it would come as his friend Karl prepared to face a difficult battle with cancer.

It was hardly a perfect situation. If the Nuggets kept winning, Dantley would be seen as a competent assistant coach who didn’t mess up a good thing. If they tumbled in the standings, he would be viewed as an inexperienced coach in over his head.

“Everybody always reminds me, ‘You’ve got to win this and win that,’ ” Dantley said. “If we lose, it’s on me. I think I’ve heard that enough. That’s part of the territory, I guess.”

A funny thing happened on the way to the playoffs. Playing 18 of their last 21 games without starting power forward Kenyon Martin in the lineup and 18 of their last 19 without Karl on the bench, the Nuggets still accomplished their annual goal of winning the Northwest Division.

Criticized for not showing enough passion and leadership as Denver lost five of six games in late-March, Dantley received little credit for helping the Nuggets captured their second consecutive division crown.

“Has an interim or acting coach ever won a division title?” Nuggets vice president of basketball operations Mark Warkentien asked the media gathered at practice Thursday. “A.D. did a helluva job in a difficult situation.”

Taking over for a ailing coach with more than 1,000 career regular-season and playoff victories would be a monumental task for anyone, let alone someone with no head-coaching experience.

Dantley handled the duty without complaint as he and the rest of the coaching staff tried to carry on Karl’s philosophy as the coach went through radiation and chemotherapy treatments for throat and neck cancer.

Given up for dead on March 31, the Nuggets rallied to win five of seven games in April, a run that proved to be good enough to earn the division title, the No. 4 seed in the West and home-court advantage for Denver’s first-round series against the Utah Jazz.

“A.D. has been put in a tough spot,” point guard Chauncey Billups said. “But the last time we had George, I think we were in the third spot. Coming down the stretch we had two or three games left in the season and we had a chance to get to (No.) 2. That tells you that A.D. has done a wonderful job of keeping us afloat, keeping us right where we needed to be. The games that we lost, it was our fault, not executing. It wasn’t him or his playcalling. It was us.”

Dantley will be the first to admit that he has made some mistakes while sitting in the first chair. He still is trying to find consistency in his playing rotation, and the second-guessing is sure to start up again at the first sign of trouble against Utah.

He already is hearing predictions of an early exit, even though Denver went 3-1 against the Jazz during the regular season.

“They probably feel like they can beat us,” Dantley said. “I’ve been hearing a lot of stuff that Utah’s favored. It’s a good matchup, and we know it’s going to be a good series.”

Dantley and the Nuggets are conceding nothing to the Jazz – except for maybe a slight edge in coaching experience. Utah coach Jerry Sloan has twice been to the NBA Finals and ranks third in league history with 1,190 victories in 25 seasons.

“This will be my first playoff game, so I guess they win that battle,” Dantley said. “He’s got the most experience.”

A great coaching career must start somewhere. A series victory over Sloan would be huge for Dantley, who was in the prime of his playing career during his seven seasons in Utah.

“Utah is like a second home to me,” he said. “It’s going to be very interesting playing against them.”

Closer to his primary home in Denver, Dantley remains under the microscope. He was blasted for allowing fellow assistant coach Chad Iske to draw up plays in a close game against Milwaukee on March 20, but the practice is more common than some might think.

Denver assistant coach Jamahl Mosley said he has seen Cleveland coach Mike Brown, Boston coach Doc Rivers and Los Angeles Lakers coach Phil Jackson allow their assistants to diagram plays in the huddle on occasion.

“When A.D. does it, that’s a stronger sign of leadership than a guy that doesn’t let you do it,” Mosley said. “It bothers you a little bit that he gets scrutinized for it because the great coaches do it and he’s right in that category of trusting enough in your staff to draw up a play. It’s spun as a sign of weakness. That’s not a sign of weakness. I think it’s a sign of strength and a sign of leadership that you’d allow somebody to do that.”

The Nuggets will need more displays of strength and leadership as the playoffs begin. Expect Dantley to once again embrace the challenge without complaint.