CHICAGO — The Bulls have barely had time to go around in a circle and introduce themselves since they first assembled as a team. Yet they somehow gave the Nuggets a baffling scare on Saturday.
Denver pulled away late for a 136-120 win at United Center to snap its first three-game losing streak of the season, but the performance wasn’t convincing against a roster that looks entirely different after last Thursday. The Bulls had the busiest trade deadline in the NBA, making seven moves and saying goodbye to several of their best players. Six players in their nine-man rotation Saturday were not on the team a week earlier.
The Nuggets (34-19) went into the fourth quarter trailing by seven. They finally put their foot down with a 20-2 run to begin that final frame, led by a relentless Nikola Jokic. Listed as questionable before the game with a mildly sprained ankle, he went for 22 points, 14 rebounds, 17 assists and four blocks, passing Oscar Robertson for second in NBA history with his 182nd career triple-double.
Denver won his minutes by 36 and lost the minutes without him by 20. Jamal Murray added 28 points and 11 assists. Tim Hardaway Jr. scored 23 off the bench.
But the Nuggets got killed in the possession battle for most of the night, allowing their hosts to linger. They committed 13 turnovers, with seven of their 10 players responsible for at least one. Chicago also snatched 12 offensive rebounds. Those stats combined to result in a discrepancy of 13 field goal attempts through three quarters.
Loose balls seemed to be scooped up by only one team. Denver over-helped out of the corners and allowed the Bulls to rain 3s — even new center Nick Richards, who had previously made only one 3-pointer in his career. The Bulls fired up 18 in the third frame alone, finishing the night with 51 as they threatened Denver with an upset that would’ve been mutually self-destructive.
With Chicago’s series of trades, the front office led by former Nuggets executive Arturas Karnisovas signaled its intent to tank the rest of this season and begin rebuilding. Among coach David Adelman’s realizations while trying to game-plan Saturday was that “Sexton is on the Bulls now?” Collin Sexton had been traded from Charlotte.
“We lost the Knicks game, and the first thing I thought about, just because the next game was Chicago was, ‘I have no idea who’s on their team’ at that point,” Adelman said. “… That day after, I did take a couple hours to go, OK, where is everybody? There were so many traded, not just in Chicago. But obviously here, tons of them. So today’s preparation was interesting, because you’re just guessing who’s gonna start. We just kind of went off who was there the prior game, with the full knowledge that these other guys are very high-level NBA players, and they could start as well.”
Cam Johnson returned from a bone bruise in his left knee for Denver and scored 14 points in a solid 6-for-9 shooting performance.
But the most resonant trend of the season continued to be true at United Center. For every Nuggets player that returns from an injury, another walks off. Murray appeared to be in general discomfort before he went to the locker room with four minutes remaining. The good news for Denver, this time, was that Murray returned to the bench by the final buzzer.