"As far as Dwane Casey was concerned, the Raptors beat themselves before the Denver Nuggets even had a chance at them.

What Casey saw Friday night in Denver was a team that was missing its leading scorer and because of that wasn't even giving itself a chance.

"Our guys have to believe," Casey said. "We can't sit back and wait for Andrea to come back. As has been said famously before, he's not walking through that door. It's us against the world for a while. We don't know how long it's going to be and we have to play like it."

The 96-81 final was actually a much closer game than it appeared and was only that way because the Raptors reserves led by Leandro Barbosa and Jerryd Bayless had that belief and tried to get the team back in the game.

They chipped away at what had been a 23-point lead and got it down to six before they ran out of gas."