Carmelo Anthony scored 41 points and 19 in the decisive fourth quarter to propel the Denver Nuggets past the Portland Trail Blazers 97-94 Thursday. Anthony made two free throws with less than two seconds remaining, after Portland fluffed a series of free throws to surrender an 85-80 lead with five minutes remaining. Center Greg Oden had a chance to snatch victory for Portland when sent to the foul line with four seconds left and his team down by a point, but missed both attempts. Brandon Roy scored 30 points and Spanish guard Rudy Fernandez 22 points off the bench for the Blazers. Bulls 92 Spurs 85: At Chicago, Derrick Rose scored 13 points and had seven assists to lead the balanced Chicago Bulls to an impressive 92-85 season-opening victory over the San Antonio Spurs. Rose, who missed most of the preseason with an injured ankle, waved and blew a kiss toward the crowd before the opening tip. He then showed some of the explosiveness that carried him to the rookie of the year award last season. He had no trouble penetrating and delivered some dizzying spin moves that drew roars from the crowd, showing no signs of the right ankle pain that had bothered him for the past few weeks. He had plenty of help, and Chicago pulled away in the second half despite Tim Duncan's 28 points and 16 rebounds for the Spurs. Nets use option to keep Yi Chinese forward Yi Jianlian has his contract option for the 2010-2011 NBA season picked up by the New Jersey Nets Thursday, securing his fourth season in North America. Yi will be paid slightly more than 4 million dollars under the contract option exercised by the Nets, who also used third-season options on Brook Lopez and Courtney Lee but declined to give forward Sean Williams a fourth year. Lopez's deal will pay him 2.41 million dollars with Lee taking home 1.34 million.
