And the longer they took, the more confident Nuggets coach George Karl became that they would overturn the shot.

"Fortunately I just read the rule a couple of days ago that with three-tenths of a second you can't pivot or turn," said Karl, who got his 939th win to move past Red Auberbach into eighth place on the NBA's all-time list. "It doesn't count. The longer it took, I thought the more it was in our favor. We've talked about missing that second free throw. It's a perfect situation with five-tenths, it's imperfect at six or seven."

Carmelo Anthony scored a season-low 20 points for Denver, while Billups added 17, and Kenyon Martin had 15 points and 10 rebounds after missing a game with a bruised left fibula.

Derrick Rose led Chicago with 22 points, while Luol Deng scored 21. Noah had a career-high 21 rebounds for the Bulls, who had won three straight.

Both teams struggled from the outside, with the Bulls hitting 4 of 18 3-pointers and the Nuggets 5 of 16.