Nuggets surge past Bulls with strong 4th quarter

Jamal Murray scored 28 points, Tim Hardaway Jr. added 23 and Nikola Jokic posted his second consecutive triple-double to lift the visiting Denver Nuggets to a 136-120 victory against the Chicago Bulls on Saturday.

Denver opened the fourth quarter on a 12-0 run and outscored Chicago 39-16 over the final 12 minutes.

Murray scored 21 points after halftime but left the game in the closing minutes with an apparent groin injury.

Julian Strawther scored 19 points for Denver, Cameron Johnson followed with 14 and Christian Braun, Jonas Valanciunas and Bruce Brown chipped in 10 apiece. Murray dished 11 assists for a double-double.

Seven Chicago players finished in double figures. Matas Buzelis led the way with 21 points while Colllin Sexton (17) followed. Anfernee Simons and Nick Richards both had 15 points, Isaac Okoro added 13, and Guerschon Yabusele (12) and Jaden Ivey (10) rounded out the attack.

Buzelis grabbed a team-high eight rebounds.

The new-look Bulls, who dealt eight players before Thursday's trade deadline, showed energy and competitiveness for the first three quarters before fading down the stretch.

Brown's runner put the Nuggets ahead 95-88 with 3:30 left in the third, but the Bulls responded by closing the quarter on a 16-2 run. The spurt started with a Richards alley-oop dunk off a feed from Rob Dillingham and ended with four treys in the final 2:24, including a pair from Yabusele.

Denver hardly panicked, though. Jokic -- who had 22 points 17 assists, and 14 rebounds to pass Oscar Robertson for second all-time with his 182nd career triple-double -- helped the Nuggets close things out.

Johnson swished a 3-pointer on Denver's first possession of the game in his first action since Dec. 23, when he sustained a right knee bone bruise and hyperextension.

A Hardaway trey stretched the Nuggets' advantage to 11 points with 3:51 left in the opening quarter before Chicago responded with a 13-4 run.

Sparked by 13 points from Simons and 10 from Buzelis, Chicago led 65-59 at halftime. Hardaway Jr. led all scorers with 18 points at the break. Jokic contributed 11 rebounds, nine points and seven assists.