The Nuggets held the short-handed — and shortened — Boston Celtics scoreless over the final six-plus minutes Thursday night, closing the game with a 16-0 run for an 89-75 win, their second straight since sending Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to the New York Knicks.

“Defense is all effort,” said Kenyon Martin , who led Denver with 18 points and 10 boards despite playing with the flu and missing the second quarter to get two bags of IV fluids.

“It’s how hard you play. Shots come and go,” Martin said. “It’s about just giving maximum effort day in and day out. That’s what we did. That’s what we’ll continue to do.”

Wilson Chandler, one of the newcomers, chipped in 16 points and eight players each played more than 20 minutes in coach George Karl’s new spread-the-wealth system that featured Ty Lawson and Raymond Felton splitting time at the point until the final five minutes, when they were on the court together and helped the Nuggets pull away.

The game pitted two teams that reshaped their rosters ahead of the NBA trade deadline. The Nuggets had a bunch of new players and the Celtics a bunch of empty seats along their bench following a flurry of trades that unloaded a bunch of big men.

The Celtics suited up just nine players and had to fight through the emotions of losing center Kendrick Perkins, who was dealt to Oklahoma City for forward Jeff Green in the biggest of Boston’s trio of trades Thursday.

“Tough day to play basketball,” Kevin Garnett said. “Very tough day to play basketball, to even concentrate. Just being bluntly honest. You feel like you lost a family member today. Tough day.”

“It was very emotional, especially for me being that I had a chance to see Perkins grow up from Day One, fresh out of high school, coming in here and seeing the level he got to, a championship team,” said Paul Pierce . “It’s definitely emotional. I had a chance to talk to him this afternoon a little bit, he was definitely hurt. The guys around this locker room were definitely hurt to see Perk go.”

The Nuggets, 2-0 since trading Melo, had their full complement of players, but their best defender, Martin, spent the second quarter in the locker room.

New Nuggets Chandler, Danilo Gallinari and Felton got off to a slow start, combining to shoot 2 for 12 in the first half, which ended with Denver ahead 37-36.

Denver took a 61-60 lead into the fourth quarter, when the pace picked up a little.

Pierce, who led Boston with 17 points, hit a 3-pointer with 6:05 remaining that gave Boston a 75-73 lead, but the Celtics wouldn’t score again.

Chandler’s 3-pointer put Denver ahead for good and Martin’s three-point play with 3:03 left gave Denver its biggest lead to that point at 79-75.

The Eastern Conference-leading Celtics also dealt reserve Nate Robinson to the Thunder and received Nenad Krstic , a future first-round draft pick, and cash in the Perkins deal.
 
Bulls 93 Heat 89: In Chicago, Derrick Rose scored 26 points and Luol Deng added 20, including the tiebreaking 3, to lift Chicago in a wild showdown between two of the Eastern Conference’s top teams.

In a game that could have playoff seeding implications, the Bulls used a big third quarter to turn a nine-point halftime lead into a 71-67 advantage, then watched a nine-point lead in the fourth evaporate into a four-point deficit before pulling it out.

Deng’s 3-pointer with 16 seconds left broke an 89-all tie and sent Chicago to its 16th win in 21 games.

Dwyane Wade scored 34 points and LeBron James added 29 for Miami, which lost for only the second time in 13 games.