Nuggets welcome in Jimmy Butler, Dwyane Wade, look to tame red-hot Bulls

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Regular Season Game No. 14 | Chicago Bulls (9-5) at Denver Nuggets (5-8)

Pepsi Center, Denver, Colorado | 7:00 PM MST | TV: Altitude

The Chicago Bulls, winners of six of their last eight, come to Pepsi Center looking to keep pace with the Cleveland Cavaliers atop the Eastern Conference standings, while the Nuggets look to finish up a four-game homestand in style.

Here’s what to watch for:

What could have been

Flashback to this past July and President and Governor Josh Kroenke, General Manager Tim Connelly, Michael Malone and other Nuggets personnel were meeting with Dwyane Wade in a Manhattan, New York boardroom trying to lure the free agent to Denver.

The Nuggets’ attempt to bring the three-time NBA champion to the Mile High City proved unsuccessful, but the franchise gained valuable name recognition and notoriety around the league during that week in July that could prove valuable next summer when Denver figures to be big players in free agency. What that week showed the Nuggets and the rest of the league was that the franchise was willing to spend money to lure a big name and talented player to Denver.

If Denver is ultimately better off with or without Wade is a question that will be hard to answer for years to come, but it’s fair to say Wade’s veteran presence may have tilted the final score in one of the Nuggets’ basket-deciding games this season.

Streaking Chicago

One of the biggest storylines and surprises this season early on is the play of the Bulls and the 9-5 record they’ve jumped out to through 14 games, good for third place in the East. The Bulls, who are wrapping up a mega Western Conference five-game road trip with a final stop in Philadelphia Friday, should be tiring, but that wasn’t the case in their 118-110 win over the Lakers Sunday.

Denver will have to focus their efforts on containing Jimmy Butler. The freshly minted Eastern Conference Player of the Week is coming off a 40-point outing in Los Angeles upping his career-high scoring numbers to 25.1 points per game. Wilson Chandler should draw the matchup on Butler for most of the game and the Nuggets’ most valuable player up to this point in the season will have to excel on both ends of the floor, as he’s done for Denver this season in order to contain Butler.

As they’ve done in their past couple games, look for the Nuggets to form lineup combinations around Chandler and Danilo Gallinari at the three and four positions. In 212 minutes this season, the Nuggets have a 2.0 NetRtg when Chandler and Gallinari are on the floor together and are a +22 plus-minus in 11 games, both team-highs for two-man combinations.

Barton back

Will Barton returned to the Nuggets’ starting lineup Sunday about two weeks ahead of schedule from an ankle injury that caused him to miss nine games.

In 19 minutes, Barton scored seven points on 3-9 shooting and was 1-3 from distance, recorded three rebounds and one assist. Barton didn’t look at full strength and was moving around pretty gingerly at times, but was healthy enough to make a positive impact when he was on the court. Malone didn’t say at practice Monday whether or not Barton had a minutes restriction heading into Tuesday’s matchup with Chicago, but it’s hard to envision him approaching the 30-35 minutes per game he was playing before the injury.

With Barton back in the lineup, Denver can get back to some sort of normalcy among their bench unit. Jameer Nelson can now move back into a reserve role and pair with Jamal Murray, who’s coming on and pushing for more minutes, while Nikola Jokic seems to be settling into his role, which for now is off the bench. Malone is able to breathe a sigh of relief with Barton back as he can finally get some structure into his rotations, until Gary Harris returns to the lineup, hopefully by the end of December.