Call it fatigue. Call it sluggishness, or being outplayed or a combination all three. But the Denver Nuggets showed the Celtics Friday night that they are human on their home court. They hadn’t lost at home in the regular season since last March 26 to Philadelphia, a string of 11 straight wins on the parquet. But that changed when the Nuggets closed the game with a 10-1 run. Now the focus is on the Bucks in Milwaukee, where the Celtics are right now, trying to make sure one bad night doesn’t turn into two.

Denver coach George Karl said his team played with the eye of the tiger.

Chauncey Billups said the Nuggets didn’t panic when the Celtics when they made their runs or made big plays like when Kevin Garnett slammed one home to tie the game at 82-82 with three minutes left.

Ray Allen, who scored 18 of his game-high 26 in the first quarter, said the Green has to do a better job with the little details to make sure losses like Friday don’t happen again.

Kevin Garnett said the Celtics were just a step slow.

Celtics coach Doc Rivers really doesn’t want to use fatigue as an excuse.

Rivers said falling behind finally burned Celtics.