CHICAGO (Ticker) -- Earl Boykins and the Denver Nuggets are halfway to matching their road win total of last season.
Boykins drilled a tie-breaking 3-pointer with 38 seconds left and rookie Carmelo Anthony collected 26 points and eight rebounds as the Nuggets posted a 105-97 victory over the Chicago Bulls.
Denver improved to 2-3 on the road after going 4-37 last year. The Nuggets blew a nine-point lead in the fourth quarter in this one before Boykins came up with his clutch shot.
The 5-5 Boykins took a pass from Jon Barry and drained a 3-pointer over the outstretched arm of 6-9 Donyell Marshall to break a 97-97 deadlock. Boykins had 14 points and nine assists off the bench.
"That was a make-up shot," Boykins said. "Earlier I missed an open layup and they went on a run, so that was a make-up shot."
Chicago went for the tie on the next possession, but rookie Kirk Hinrich's corner 3-pointer was short. Nene grabbed the rebound and added four foul shots in the final 30 seconds to seal the victory.
Denver bounced back from a 5-of-19 performance from the floor in a 15-point third quarter to score 39 points and shoot 60 percent (12-of-20) in the fourth.
"We were just standing around and not moving the basketball," Denver coach Jeff Bzdelik said. "Going into the fourth, we said, 'we're better than that' and we came out and did it."
Eddy Curry fouled out with 20 points and nine rebounds and Kendall Gill added 16 points for Chicago, which lost its third straight home game. Bulls coach Bill Cartwright did not start former Nugget Jalen Rose and Jamal Crawford for the second straight game, opting for Gill and Hinrich instead.
Anthony scored 11 points in the fourth quarter as he beat a team with Hinrich again. The Nuggets forward led Syracuse to the NCAA title with a victory over Hinrich and Kansas in April.
"I'm one-up on him," Anthony said. "This was big, but the last one was much bigger."
"That game has been in the back of my mind since the day it happened," Hinrich said. "Now he's two-up on me."
The victory was a special one for Bzdelik, who is from suburban Chicago and had a big smile on his face at the end.
"Yes, it is nice to win here," he said. "This is my hometown. I'd be lying if I didn't say it was special to win tonight."
Jon Barry scored a season-high 19 points and added four of Denver's 16 steals. Anthony registered a season-high five steals.
"Carmelo is a winner," Bzdelik said. "He had a great line tonight and he played a complete game."
Rose and Crawford combined for 48 points in Saturday's win at New Orleans and both expressed displeasure over not starting afterward. On Monday, Rose was 3-of-14 for seven points and Crawford added six points and five assists.
"It is a dead issue as far as talking about it goes," Rose said. "You're an athlete so no one will have sympathy for you, so you just have to go play at practice and see what happens."
The Bulls were done in by a sloppy effort in which their 25 turnovers were converted into 30 points. They have yielded 69 points on 50 miscues in the last two games.
"We will think about and ponder our silly mistakes, throwing the ball away, all that stuff that we rehearse every day," Cartwright said. "It it irritating. You want to take these losses hard."
Denver shot just 38 percent (33-of-87), but took advantage at the foul line, shooting 80.5 percent (33-of-41). Chicago made 12-of-16 free throws.
The Bulls suffered their closest loss of the season. Their first four losses were by an average of 27 points.
