Motivated Nuggets take win from Jazz

One has 11 games remaining before its season is done. The other has 12, and every intention of continuing after that into the postseason.

In the fourth quarter of Denver's 109-98 win over the Jazz on Wednesday night at the Delta Center, it was pretty easy to tell which was which.

"This game was important," Denver's Andre Miller, the former University of Utah point guard, said after scoring a game-high 24 points on 7-of-10 shooting from the field with 10-of-11 makes from the free-throw line.

"Right now," added Nuggets coach George Karl, whose 39-31 club has won seven of its last eight outings and scored 100 or more in each of its last nine, "this team has a belief in itself, a little confidence."

Utah has virtually none.

"We looked like we had a chance to win the ballgame," Jazz coach Jerry Sloan said after his team fell to 22-49, "then we give them a couple of easy baskets, and then we couldn't make stops — same things we've had problems with all year long."

The Nuggets, who came into the game holding down the eighth and final playoff position in the NBA's Western Conference, and the Northwest Division cellar-dwelling Jazz actually went into the final quarter tied at 76.

With just more than five minutes to go, it was still a one-point game, with Denver up 91-90.

"Utah was hurting us with a lot of their cute stuff," Karl said, "and their big guys got inside on us early in the game and rebounded."

The start of those final five minutes, though, is when the Nuggets went on a 10-0 run, spurred by a Carmelo Anthony layup dished by Miller.

"My aggressiveness," the former Ute said, "led to easy baskets for other people, easy rebound opportunities and fastbreak points."

Denver followed the Anthony layup with two Marcus Camby baskets, both fed by Miller, and four Earl Boykins free throws.

"We was aggressive. Everybody — Camby, Andre — everybody was aggressive," said Anthony, who along with Camby scored 23.

"I think at the end, with us being so aggressive," Anthony added, "they kind of wore down the last four or five minutes of the game."

The Jazz, who resume their seven game homestand Saturday night vs. Golden State, never got closer than within nine over the final two minutes.

"It was close, and we turned the ball over a couple of times — I did a couple of times — we missed free throws, easy layups," said Jazz big man Mehmet Okur, who had a game-high 17 rebounds to go with his team-high 23 points. "They made other end."

Made the Jazz pay on it, that is.

"They hit shots, we didn't," Jazz point Keith McLeod said. "They had stops ... We didn't get stops.

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