CHICAGO — New year, new Nuggets? For a long while, it sure had that look.
The constant running in the open court had a mini-throwback feel to it. The defensive intensity and awareness felt altogether new.
When we last left the Nuggets, last year, they were in mid- crumble in so many areas that they looked to the calendar to help clean their slate. And because they competed so well Thursday, it made the 106-101 loss to the Bulls at the United Center that much tougher to swallow.
“It’s tough,” Nuggets forward Wilson Chandler said. “I don’t believe in moral victories, but we fought hard. You can’t say it was the effort, it was just the execution and our defense at the end of the game.”
The Bulls are NBA title contenders because they don’t let bad quarters or halves, or even three quarters, get in the way of what matters most: figuring out any way possible to walk out with a victory. That’s how Thursday’s game played out.
“I felt good about the game in terms of the energy and effort the players came out with,” Nuggets coach Brian Shaw said. “They seemed like they were focused. But it was a bad stretch that kind of did us in.”
Chicago will most certainly want to burn the film from this one. There were so many missed shots and missed defensive assignments (early on) and just general lethargy. Derrick Rose missed his first eight shots before making one. Pau Gasol missed layups.
But when it counted, the Bulls stood up and were counted.
They made plays down the stretch that won the game.
For the Nuggets, the first half was frame worthy. They played with focus, pace and an effectiveness not seen much lately. When they got stops, they were immediately out on the break, and they were finishing almost all of those opportunities. When the Bulls were back on defense, the Nuggets had run it into the frontcourt anyway, and were quick and decisive with cuts and shot attempts.
And the starters led the way. Their work ethic was in question Tuesday in a home loss to the Lakers, but not in the opening 24 minutes Thursday. The quintet of Chandler, Ty Lawson, Arron Afflalo, Kenneth Faried and Tim- ofey Mozgov scored all but three of Denver’s 53 first-half points.
But in the end, the Bulls did what they do best — defend. They picked up the intensity, contested every shot, shut down the lane and generally made the Nuggets work for every basket they got. And there weren’t many of them. The Nuggets led by as many as 13 points in the third quarter and were up 11 with 7:42 left in the quarter.
But the Bulls outscored them 24-10 the rest of the way.
And in the fourth quarter, Chicago held off the Nuggets. The Bulls blocked an unbelievable 18 shots in the game, “which I’ve never seen in a game as long as I’ve been around,” Shaw said.
The Nuggets got another monster game from Faried, who finished with 18 points and 19 rebounds. Chandler led the Nuggets with 22 points. Lawson added 20 points and seven assists.
But it wasn’t enough.
“It’s all the same,” Afflalo said. “Either you’re playing to win, or mistakes happen and you lose the game. A loss is a loss.”
Christopher Dempsey: cdempsey@denverpost.com or
