Nuggets 104, Jazz 84
DENVER -- Corey Brewer scored 20 points off the bench, Kenneth Faried had 18 points and 11 rebounds and the Denver Nuggets beat the Utah Jazz 104-84 on Friday night at the Pepsi Center.
Kosta Koufos and Andre Iguodala had 15 points each for the Nuggets, who won their third game in a row.
Gordon Hayward led Utah with 15 points and Randy Foye added 13. Derrick Favors had 10 points, 11 rebounds and five blocks.
The Nuggets (3-3) led by 15 at intermission and pushed the advantage to 21 points midway through the third quarter. Koufos hit two buckets and Iguodala drained a 3-pointer to make it 69-48.
The Jazz (2-4) tried to get back into the game but twice they were thwarted by Brewer.
Hayward scored seven consecutive points and Foye hit a 3-pointer that cut Denver's lead to 75-63 early in the fourth when Brewer got hot. He hit a pair of 3-pointers from each corner and was fouled on the second one. He converted the free throw to push the lead to 82-65 less than a minute later.
Utah mounted another comeback and got back within reach when Jamaal Tinsley's basket made it 90-78. Brewer struck again, hitting two more 3s to put Denver up 96-78 with 3:08 remaining.
The Jazz, who started the game shooting 12-for-24, went cold for long stretches and committed 17 turnovers.
Faried had 14 points and eight rebounds in the first half as the Nuggets used a strong second quarter to take a 53-38 lead at intermission.
Ty Lawson had nine points and five assists for the Nuggets in the first half, while Paul Millsap and Enes Kanter led Utah with six points each.
The Nuggets used their defense to get their running game going in the second quarter. It led to some easy baskets and one ill-fated windmill dunk attempt by Faried, whose acrobatic try bounced off the back rim and out to the 3-point line.
The Jazz led 32-30 when they went cold. They missed 14 of 16 shots and had seven turnovers in the last 9:02 of the first half, which allowed Denver to take control of the game. Faried shook off the missed dunk to score seven points down the stretch and Iguodala finished an alley-oop dunk from Danilo Gallinari as Denver outscored the Jazz 17-2 to close the second quarter.
The Jazz looked strong early, getting a balanced scoring attack and strong defense from Derrick Favors. Favors blocked five shots in his 10:15 first-half minutes.
NOTES: Denver forward Wilson Chandler did not play due to soreness in his surgically-repaired left hip. Chandler has been sitting out the second night of back-to-back games but missed the front end of Denver's two-game set. ... Jazz guard Alec Burks returned to the area where he played college basketball. Burks starred for the University of Colorado from 2009-2011. ... Nuggets center Timofey Mozgov played in his first game of the season. He missed the first five with a left knee
