|
 Robinson and Jordan Hamilton each hit back-to-back 3-pointers to
start the fourth quarter, helping the Denver Nuggets pull away for a
97-87 victory against the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night.
"I've been battling little injuries, and been in a little slump, not
wanting to take the shots I usually take just because I didn't want
to miss them and hurt my team," said Robinson, who scored 10 of his
11 points in the fourth quarter.
"But I got to the stage where I'm like, 'Forget it. Just play and be
you,'" he said. "I'm no longer going to worry about missing shots.
I'm just going to shoot when I'm open and play aggressive, get my
teammates involved and play as hard as I can for as long as I can
and enjoy the minutes that I get."
Hamilton finished with 17 points to lead the Nuggets, who won their
seventh straight against the Bulls at the Pepsi Center. J.J. Hickson
had 14 points, Kenneth Faried had 12 points and 11 rebounds, and
Randy Foye also scored 12 points.
Derrick Rose had 19 points for the Bulls, who snapped a five-game
winning streak.
Robinson, who spent last season with the Bulls, started a 12-0 burst
when he hit successive 3s opening the final period. Hamilton matched
him by making 3s on consecutive possessions, and the Nuggets' lead
ballooned to 82-62 with 9:40 left.
"He's a sparkplug, man," teammate Ty Lawson said. "Nate is never
down and out, so if he misses through three quarters, he's going to
come through in the fourth quarter. That's what he did for us."
Chicago managed to pull to 94-83, but Robinson responded by hitting
a 12-foot bank shot to help quash the Bulls' late momentum.
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"You can't let your guard down against them,"
Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau said. "I thought their bench hurt
us. Hamilton had a big game for them, Nate had the two big shots
to start the fourth, (Timofey) Mozgov hurt us in the paint.
Lawson puts a lot of pressure on you, and (Wilson) Chandler puts
a lot of pressure on you. You've got to use your team to slow
them down.
"Our turnovers hurt us," Thibodeau added, "but the big thing is
we gave them easy scoring opportunities. We should have been
able to count on our defense. Ninety-seven points, 46 percent
(shooting), it's too much."
Darrell Arthur hit a baseline jumper to give the Nuggets a 69-60
lead with 1:09 left in the third, matching their biggest lead of
the night. Denver was in front 70-62 going into the final
period.
The Bulls outscored the Nuggets 8-2 in the last two minutes of
the second quarter, pulling to 50-48 at halftime. Chicago hit
the offensive boards in the surge, getting tip-ins from Carlos
Boozer, Luol Deng and Joakim Noah during the sequence.
NOTES: Chicago's Mike Dunleavy started at shooting guard in
place of Jimmy Butler, who is week to week because of a toe
injury. ... Chicago's Taj Gibson was ejected with 1:15 left
after drawing his second technical foul. ... Chicago hasn't won
in Denver since a 110-107 victory on Feb. 8, 2006. ... Faried
has 10 or more rebounds in five of his last six games.
[Associated
Press; DENNIS GEORGATOS]
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