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Nuggets @ Lakers | 1st Qtr | 2nd Qtr | 3rd Qtr | 4th Qtr

We certainly have a tough act to follow after yesterday's stellar matchups, but hopefully the Lakers and Nuggets can give us some similar excitement, at least in Game 1.

Half of the Nuggets team has probably already had enough excitement for the day, as a bus carrying them caught on fire on the way to the arena. Since thankfully no one was hurt, I can now laugh out loud at the prospect of seeing the likes of Marcus Camby and J.R. Smith standing on the shoulder of the 10 freeway waiting for a ride.

So we'll get things started at around 3PM Eastern, although things have obviously begun to heat up a bit for some of the Nuggets this morning.

- And we're off, with ABC giving us a nice big helping of Tim McGraw and Def Leppard. What demographic are they targeting with that musical combo, exactly?

- First words from Mike Breen: "Welcome to a sold out Staples Center." You hear that, Spurs fans?

- Ha, Phil Jackson drove by and saw the Nuggets' bus situation, and didn't stop. Awesome.

- Kobe is totally shot out of a cannon, misses a quick pull-up jumper and then throws a wild shot/pass high off the glass. Relax dude, it's Game 1 of the first round.

- Weird call there, VladRad picks up his second foul when A.I. falls down trying to front him.

- Iverson gets around Kobe and finds three Lakers waiting for him, one of whom fouls him. At least there was some help defense. A lot of whistles early on, we could be here a while.

- Shot clock violation after Kobe tries to get cute with a behind-the-back dribble. Next possession for L.A. we see the vaunted Nuggets defense part the lane for an uncontested Odom dunk. Ole!

- Not surprisingly, the Lakers are moving the ball very well and scoring at will, shooting 54% against Denver's so-called defense. That gets 'em a 15-9 lead halfway through the first.

- What the hell was that? Nuggets coaches relieving some stress by playing a little pre-game grab-ass in the locker room. Hey, whatever works guys. I think.

- And just like that, it's a 10-point game. Denver really needs to go to the basket on offense and lock down a little on defense or this one's going to get even more out of hand very quickly.

- Very nice penetration-dish by A.I. to Camby for the dunk. But Kobe hits Pau in similar fashion on the other end for two. OK, two straight solid possessions offensively for Denver, now let's see about that "defense" thing.

- Discussing Denver's defense: being 29th in points allowed per game isn't a big deal, because the Nuggets lead the league in possessions per game at over 102. Meaning, they score a lot themselves. If you want to be concerned about one of their defensive stats, it's the 14th in the league in field goal percentage that's a problem. That means they don't contest shots and give up a lot of easy ones, as we've seen so far today.

- The D-U-I chant for Carmelo: I do not approve, and will not be partaking when I go to Game 2 on Wednesday.

- Jordan Farmar shows why the zone will not work against the Lakers: they're too good at finding the open shooters.

- Nuggets finish the quarter on a nice 6-0 run though, cutting the Lakers lead to 4 at 26-22.