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Tuesday, Apr. 18 9:00pm ET
LaFrentz's career-high 32 lifts Denver | |||||
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 GAME FLOW
DENVER (AP) -- Utah's reserves gave Denver's starters a scare. That wasn't nearly enough to satisfy Jazz coach Jerry Sloan as his team tunes up for another playoff run. Raef LaFrentz scored a career-high 32 points and George McCloud hit a 20-foot jump shot with 25 seconds left in overtime to lift the Nuggets to a 105-104 victory over the Jazz on Tuesday night. LaFrentz also had 17 rebounds and Nick Van Exel added 15 points and 10 assists for the Nuggets, who struggled to win even though the Jazz played their reserves for the game's final 19 minutes. "It would have meant a little more had the starters played, but regardless, we won the game," said McCloud, who had predicted a victory Monday. "We finished the way we started the season, with a win at home." Having clinched the Midwest Division in Phoenix on Sunday, Sloan took the opportunity to rest starters Karl Malone, John Stockton, Jeff Hornacek, Byron Russell and Olden Polynice. Although his bench accounted for 67 points, Sloan was stingy with his compliments. "We had some guys that came out and didn't give it an effort," he said. "We can't expect to be in shape to play when the playoffs start. It looked like we had a couple of guys about to die out there." Malone finished with 10 points in only 18 minutes, while Utah was led by Scott Padgett's 13 points. Jacque Vaughn and Armen Gilliam each scored 12 but also combined for five of Utah's 22 turnovers. "You can't just go out there and play street basketball," Sloan said. "We have to have some semblance of order. You'd think that after 80 games, you would be able to handle the ball a little bit better. The final mistakes came after McCloud's go-ahead jump shot as Quincy Lewis, who hit two 3-pointers in overtime, missed a 3-point attempt and was then blocked by LaFrentz inside the lane. Utah called a timeout with five seconds left, but threw away the inbounds pass. James Posey recovered the loose ball and Denver was able to run out the clock. "Given the fact they only played their starters 10 or 15 minutes, it would have been a bad way to end it had we lost the game," Nuggets coach Dan Issel said. "Quite frankly, early on, their bench was giving us more trouble than their starters were." LaFrentz gave Denver a two-point lead on a two-handed dunk with 31 seconds left in regulation, but Vaughn -- LaFrentz former college teammate at Kansas -- tied the game on two free throws seven seconds later. The Nuggets had two good chances to win it in regulation, but LaFrentz missed a tough 10-foot shot, and his putback attempt rolled off the rim as time expired. "I didn't play well against Utah at all this year," LaFrentz said. "This is the only game against them where I broke four points. "There definitely is a little extra motivation playing against Jacque. I always want to play well against the Kansas boys." Though neither team had anything at stake, things got tense in the third quarter. Van Exel took exception when Stockton hit him after the whistle. Van Exel yelled at Polynice seconds later after being fouled by the Utah center, and Malone picked up an offensive foul when he knocked Van Exel down with a hard screen. "There was a little intensity," Van Exel said. "We wanted to win. I think they wanted to win. It was in the fun of the game." Game notesMalone had three assists and joined Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Wilt Chamberlain and Charles Barkley as the only players in NBA history with 20,000 points, 10,000 rebounds and 4,000 assists. ... In their first season at the Pepsi Center, the Nuggets won 25 home games, the most since the 1993-94 team won 28 games. ... Hornacek was 3-for-3 from the foul line to raise his NBA-leading free-throw percentage to 94.9, which would rank third-best in league history. ... Denver's backups had 25 points after scoring 18 in the previous two games combined. | ALSO SEE NBA Scoreboard Utah Clubhouse Denver Clubhouse RECAPS Boston 114 Washington 81
Denver 105
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