Utah Jazz: Fall apart in opener

DENVER — The weather outside was frightful.

The Denver Nuggets inside in the fourth quarter, delightful.

So it went on the opening night of the 2009-10 NBA season for the Jazz, who fell 114-105 at snowy Denver despite leading for most of three quarters — and despite a 28-point, 13-assist double-double from point guard Deron Williams.

Last season's Western Conference-finalist Nuggets dominated down the stretch in a late-starting, ESPN-televised game at the sold-out Pepsi Center, outscoring Utah 32-25 and out-rebounding the Jazz 15-11 in the fourth quarter.

"They picked it up a little bit, got tougher — and we got a little softer, to make a long story short," Jerry Sloan said after the start of 22nd season as coach of the Jazz was spoiled. "I mean, you can't win if you're not gonna block people off the boards and get back and play some defense.

"They went around us about any time they wanted to."

The loss snapped a streak of six straight season-opening victories for the Jazz, whose starting lineup Wednesday — Williams at the point, Ronnie Brewer at shooting guard, Andrei Kirilenko at small forward, Carlos Boozer at power forward and Mehmet Okur at center — was the same as it was for their first-round postseason-ending Game 5 loss last April to the Los Angeles Lakers.

Denver's defining moment of Utah's disastrous fourth quarter: Nuggets star Carmelo Anthony missed a long jumper midway through the period, but he intercepted backup power forward Paul Millsap's outlet pass for Williams and proceeded to deliver a thunderous dunk over Millsap.

Anthony was fouled by Millsap on the play and hit the free throw that followed to put the Nuggets up 99-88 with six minutes and 17 seconds remaining.

Two-time NBA All-Star Boozer, meanwhile, finished just 3-of-14 from the field and with 12 points on an evening that started ominously for the Jazz.

"I had some good shots - just missed 'em," Boozer said. "They're shots I've been making my whole career."

Okur exited in the game's first minute after mildly spraining both his left ankle and left knee trying to take a charge from Nene, but he returned seven minutes later — with the ankle re-taped, and the knee sporting a neoprene sleeve — and finished the first half with 12 points on 5-for-6 field shooting.

The Jazz made good on their final five full possessions of the second quarter — a Brewer layup delivered by Kirilenko, two inside from Williams on a Boozer-fed turnaround after posting up Nuggets rookie backup point guard Ty Lawson, a Brewer layup and the free throw that followed after a pass from Williams, Williams' pull-up 3-pointer and two Boozer free throws — and went into the break up two at 56-54.