Melo is on fire, really good ball movement by the Nuggets. Hoping to see JR light it up at some stage and bury the Lakers.

Fisher from the corner at the end of the half gives the Lakers a 1-point lead...

Kobe just 7/16 from the floor for 16 points to the half. Melo is 8/11 for 20 points.

Wow... 11 scorers for the Lakers, all 12 with court-time!

Shit. the way we're playing...we should be blown out

If Billu[ps had been hitting his shots this game could nearly be over by now...

80-76 in favour of Nuggets...Melo still on fire with 30 points on 11/15 shooting, including 4/4 from 3PT.

Nuggets up 96-92 with 3:25 left in the game.

Melo with 39 points, Kobe with 32.

Billups just 3/11 on shooting and 0/5 on threes...will big shot step up to lay a dagger into the Lakers?

35.5 seconds to go...all tied at 99 all. After 2 straight misses at the line by Gasol, Billups hit his first triple of the night to give the Nug's a 2 point lead with 1:38 to go.

Come on Nugs! Lakes with possession...

Anthony Carter just threw away any chance the Nuggets had of winning agem with with a terrible pass...Ariza stole it and Kobe headed to the line to make both and open up a 4 point lead with 10 seconds to go...

Couldn;t get it done...Lakes by 2 points in a agame the Nuggets could and probably should have won.

That Carter pass was U/10's stuff. Should have called a timeout.

Good game - I tuned in for the 2nd half. Its looking like it will be a fairly high scoring series. Loved watching Kobe get beat up on the block by Melo!

Experience won out in the end I thought with Denver making too many mistakes in the last few minutes. eg, leaving Fisher wide open in the corner for 3, Carter's inbounds pass, Martin's reach-in foul on Kobe and there was another entry pass either Chauncey or Carter threw away as well.

Also, Denver did not do a good enough job of creating isolation plays for Carmelo in their last few possessions. Carmelo should be able to easily shoot over Kobe and probably Ariza - Odom might be an interesting matchup, because he'd probably force the drive to make Carmelo beat Gasol at the rim.

Contrast Denver's offence late with the way the Lakers got Kobe the ball in good positions = Kobe getting 18 in the final quarter to close out the game.

Most likely could go to a 7 match series though Denver tried today everything and lost !

Agree in general with Beantown's observations. Lakers clearly were able to cope with the pressure much better - could be the difference .

Don't forget Billups had an off game. I expect him to come back hard in Game 2. I wouldn't be getting too excited if I were the Lakers - it took an 18 point final quarter and some shocking decisions on Denver's part to get over the line at home.

Still think Denver can get it done - they would be happy to go to Denver 1-1 IMO.

thedoctor- Kobe, Bynum etc (well, the whole Lakers really) had an off game too. But honestly, Lakers don't deserve to win the championship; yeah coming from me! I thought we were going to lose today and we should have.

thedoctor - the reason Carter had to make that pass was that Denver were out of timeouts I believe. Hence after Kobe made the 2 FT's they had to inbound from the base. Billups should have made more space, but another Nuggets player should have stepped up to help.

Lakers got lucky in this game - Kobe was ok, not his best shooting night and LO, Gasol & Bynum sucked.

You got to ask yourself why Denver started to make so bad decisions after having the game under control ?

No doubt this will be a long series but do not under estimate the Lakers who has the ability to cope with pressure in big games . Denver lost a game they more or less had won before going into the last few minutes, why ?

all those questions about why Denver lost at the end? Well...

1) Kobe will just bail Lakers out when in trouble. (provided the game is still within reach)

2) Coach, nothing against Karl but I don't think he's made proper decisions down the end.

3) Obviously experience, this is really Denver's first game like this so later in the series they probably won't be making the same mistakes.

4) Lakers only play ball when they have to; which is why I'm really disguisted. They're not paying respect thinking they'll score when required. And for that reason we shouldn't win this series or even make this deep in the playoffs. Will Lakers beat Caveliers? Probably (in my honest opinion), just because they have the repuration to step up when required. Cavs are yet to beat Lakers this season and during both matches Lakers snapped Cavs' winning streak both times. This was same case even in Boston. Conversely, a somewhat less respected opponent Lakers lost both game against them. So if you guys don't want Lakers to win, go for Magic instead of Cavs!

Great game, so many ripper close games this year in the finals...for the record Nuggets in 6 games

A much more exciting series then the Rockets/Lakers series. For me Houston is the new boring Spurs.

Denver did have a time out at that point that Carter should have used! However,Denver lost the game at the foul line hitting 23/35 at 65%. If they were better there they would have closed the game out earlier. However, as they didn't this opened the door and Kobe he delivered.

I don't know why they end the game with Carter and Billups on at the same time! Carter doesn't offer much at all. He is small, poor shooter, slow, a poor man's Derek Fisher without a shot. I guess they don't really have an alternative and Jones had a poor game. They needed to score at that point so they should have had JR Smith on!

Denver have a very good defensive team but the only thing they don't have is a Kobe stopper. They are also miles ahead in scoring ability then the Rockets so for that reason it is possible that they could beat the Lakers. It could go either way at this stage, Denver are much better then people think they are.

It will be a great series to watch!

sorry people - but the Denver played the near perfect game while Kobe and Lakers were only at 60% and they still couldn't beat the great team!! .. when Kobe actually starts to get it going it's over for the poor Nuggets

Watched the replay, and Denver choked it.
Lost it from the foul line.
Lakers win with smarts. Gasol, misses 2 foul shots, gets an offensive rebound plus the foul on the next trip down the floor between 3 Nuggets, and nails the 2 foul shots.
Way more composed down the stretch. (Also Billups' 3 should not have counted!).

Great call by Phil to foul at the halfway line before the 3 attempt could be put up as well. 2 foul shots insted.

Phil will totally outcoach George Karl in this series, just like in '96.

the thing is - the Lakers have the world's best player, Kobe (3 time worlds champ) and best coach (9 time worlds champ) vs no expereince crack under pressure team with a coach that has 0 rings in what 100 years of coaching. lol

just to show a great Kobe is not only was he sick in the second round but he is also injured. look at quotes from espn

He took over in the fourth quarter, finishing with 40 points, including six free throws in the final 30 seconds, to lift Los Angeles to a 105-103 win over the Denver Nuggets in the opener on Tuesday night after the Lakers trailed most of the game.

'Once I sensed we didn't have the energy, I had to take it upon myself to lead by example,' he said. 'It's just part of my responsibilities to this team.'

He did it even with an injury.

Bryant had the right ring finger on his shooting hand taped after the game. He dislocated it against Cleveland in January and had to have it popped back in place Tuesday.

"He dislocated it against Cleveland in January and had to have it popped back in place Tuesday."

Thats a long time to wait to have a finger popped back in.....

Yeah that doesn't sound right. He probably just re-did it. A old dislocation is nothing to these players just put it back into place and it is sore for a while and thats it.