Andrea Bargnani stars as Toronto Raptors upset Denver Nuggets 105 - 96 - NBA Recap
On Wednesday night, Toronto Raptors hosted the Denver Nuggets at Air Canada Centre, Toronto, ON. Going into the game, the Raptors were looking to put an end to their two game losing streak and they did that with a 105 – 96 win
over the Nuggets.
The game had a sluggish start with both teams missing out on their first opportunities to take the lead. Raptors opened the scoring with a jump shot made by Andrea Bargnani who led the Raptors with 10 points in the frame, helping
them attain a marginal lead at the end of the first quarter (27-22).
Denver Nuggets are known for their fast paced offense and they displayed some of that in the ensuing quarter. Behind Ty Lawson`s 9 assists, Nuggets gave the Raptors a run for their money. On the other end, Bargnani added 6 more
points to help the Raptors maintain a 2 point lead at the half way stage (55-53).
The start of the second half had a similar story line with both teams going back and forth. Even though the Raptors were finding it very hard to keep up with the Nuggets fast break offense, they did a very doing a good job of hanging
in.
In the latter stages of the third quarter, it looked as though Denver were going to run away with it. The Nuggets held an 85-79 lead with 1:46 remaining in the period, but the Raps were not going out that easy. They dug deep to
make a comeback and tie all scores at 85 a piece within the final minute of the third.
The main highlight of the game was the Raptors defence in the fourth quarter. The Raptors had failed miserably trying to put a stop to the Nuggets fast paced offense. They decided to implement the zone defence in the fourth which
proved to be very fruitful for the Raptors.
Raptors managed to shut out the Nuggets for the last 8 minutes of the game and ended the game on a 17-2 run. Denver shot a very low percentage in the fourth quarter, only managing a 3 for 20 from the field and 0 for 5 from behind
the arc.
Andrea Bargnani had a game high for the Raptors scoring 26 points, managing to cross the 6,000 points scored mark for his career which places him on the number 4 in all time Raptors scoring lists. The more important stat was that
he had helped the Raptors come out of a slump.
"It was fun because you know in this stretch, I missed so many wide open threes and then I hit the two hardest maybe. It was a very good fourth quarter." -- Andrea Bargnani.
The Raptors head coach were very pleased with the fourth quarter defence;
"With the new group in there you can call it what you want to call it. We were confused, they were confused, but again, when you work hard with anything, even when you make a mistake it turns out well." – Dwane Casey.
The Raptors play Miami Heat next on their home court Friday, thus beginning a 3 game home stead.
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