DENVER -- After nearly burying themselves with a flat third quarter, the Denver Nuggets made up for it with a big fourth quarter to stun the Chicago Bulls.

Forward Danilo Gallinari scored 33 points, including a go-ahead jumper in the final minute, and the Nuggets rallied from 18 down to beat the Bulls 115-110 Friday night.

Denver guard Emmanuel Mudiay scored 22, and forward Kenneth Faried had a key put-back among his 11 points and 11 rebounds.

"The most positive thing about this team and the best thing about this team is we never give up," said Gallinari, who was 18-for-18 from the foul line. "We've been down in a lot of games, especially in the first half, but we always battle back."

Guard Derrick Rose had 30 points, nine rebounds and eight assists, but the Bulls couldn't overcome the loss of swingman Jimmy Butler to a left knee sprain.

The Bulls were already playing without forward Pau Gasol (sore left hand) when Butler went down with 1:05 left in the second quarter. Butler landed awkwardly after he was fouled by Nuggets center Joffrey Lauvergne on a drive to the basket. Butler lay on the floor while being attended to by the Nuggets' team doctor.

Butler initially refused to be put in the wheelchair that was brought out for him, as he wanted to shoot his free throws. He made one of two, and then teammate Aaron Brooks helped him get into the wheelchair. Butler had his knee bandaged after having it X-rayed.

"He said he heard something pop," Rose said. "With my knees, I knew that was something serious. I came back here a couple of times to use the restroom and (saw) that they were icing it."

Butler is scheduled to have an MRI exam in Minnesota on Saturday morning before the Bulls face the Timberwolves, coach Fred Hoiberg said.

"I talked to our trainers, the knee seems intact, the ligaments seem stable," Hoiberg said. "He's sore. We've got to be prepared to play without Jimmy for a time, but we don't want to jump to conclusions. We'll know a lot more (Saturday)."

Butler, who was a game-time decision because of left knee tendinitis, had 19 points, five assists in two rebounds before leaving the game.

Butler's injury wasn't the only thing that went wrong. For most of the fourth quarter, the arena scoreboard showed the Bulls having two more points than the official monitors. The officials talked with both coaches, and it was determined the scoreboard had the correct total for Chicago.

"It looks like we were up nine and then we were up five," Hoiberg said. "I didn't know what was going on with that. It was a weird deal."

Referee crew chief Scott Foster told a pool reporter, "There was an agreement that the score was wrong between both teams which alerted me to go and try to figure what was going on.

"Everyone agreed that the score at the end of the third was correct 89-73 Chicago. I had the score book and the play-by-play cross reference the statistical information and in doing so we found that the score for Denver was minus-2. They had eight in the book but they had 10 in the play-by-play. ...

"They fixed it and we moved on. The confusion came when Chicago lost two points, but the incident was solved by cross-referencing the book and the play-by-play."

Without Butler and Gasol, the Bulls built an 87-69 lead late in the third quarter before Denver came back.

Forward Will Barton had seven quick points and forward Nikola Jokic hit two 3-pointers to get Denver within 100-95 with 5:58 left.

"Nikola's two threes, I feel like they were the two biggest shots in the game because it gave us momentum," Mudiay said. "We were down 10 and he hit those two."

Barton finished with 18 points, and Jokic had 14 points and 12 rebounds.

The lead was one after Mudiay's 3-pointer, and Faried tied it at 105 with a free throw with 2:56 left.

Gallinari's baseline jumper with 51.2 seconds left bounced off the front of the rim and through to give Denver a 109-108 lead, its first since the second quarter.

"It was a lucky roll, but sometimes you've got to be lucky, too," Gallinari said.

Rose missed a jumper at the other end. Mudiay was then fouled, and he hit the first of two free throws. Faried slid into the lane to tip in Mudiay's miss and make it 112-108.

Forward Taj Gibson scored 18 for Chicago, and forward Doug McDermott had 15 off the bench.

NOTES: Bulls F Pau Gasol might also miss the Saturday game at Minnesota with the hand injury that kept him out Friday. Gasol has missed only three games this season, and coach Fred Hoiberg said he is a quick healer. "He's actually made quite a bit of progress," Hoiberg said. ... Nuggets F Darrell Arthur hopes to play Sunday at New York after sitting Friday with a left quad injury. He has been bothered by the injury at different points of the season. ... Chicago F Mike Dunleavy (back) did not play but is expected to make his season debut Saturday against the Timberwolves. ... Nuggets G Jameer Nelson (sore left wrist) missed his third consecutive game.