What a series

Well this was quite a series indeed, the Nuggets almost blew their chance to raise the trophy, until they pulled themselves together and won a series that most thought they would. The Raptors won two hard fought games to take a commanding 2-0 series lead, leaving the Nuggets one loss away from elimination. Given their desperation the true stars stepped up and took back the series, winning it going away in game 5.

Game 1 consisted of the Raptors slowing it down and making sure that the game was played at their pace. With the Nuggets starting lineup missing a lot of easy layups early and often, the Raptors were able to jump out to an early 26-13 lead, stunning the Nuggets and their faithful. However, the Nuggets went on a run led by Yao Ming, who would prove to be quite a force all series, making the lead only 4 at halftime for the Raptors at 32-28. With the 3rd quarter remaining heated most of the way the Raptors again began to pull away to end the quarter. The Nuggets would again make a run to get back into it behind Yao Ming, who led all scorers with 28 points. With Yao now getting minutes with the starters to end the game the Nuggets were able to finally take a lead in the final minute. With the score tied and 15 seconds to go, Kevin Garnett was able to get a rebound and dunk to give the Nuggets a 2 point lead. However, with Paul Pierce being triple teamed he was able to find Elton Brand under the basket, where he would make a shot with .02 seconds remaining to force OT. In OT Dwight Howard and Tim Duncan went back and forth before the Raptors gained a 4 point lead with under a minute to go, forcing the Nuggets into quick possessions. The Raptors escaped out of Denver with a 7 point OT victory despite Yao's dominating performance, to take a 1-0 series lead.