There's good news and bad news for the Denver Nuggets against the Chicago Bulls

 

The Denver Nuggets are in Chicago to face the Bulls at the United Center. First year head coach Fred Hoiberg is overseeing a transformation in Chi-Town from a defensive juggernaut to a more offensive group. Hoiberg didn’t hesitate to show he was in control and willing to do what was best for the team as he benched two-time All-Star and the 2014 Defensive Player of the Year, Joakim Noah, in favor of more spacious starting lineup that features second-year forward Nikola Mirotic.

The move has paid off for Hoiberg as the Bulls sit in third place in the Eastern Conference, but curiously enough the team owns a point differential of just +0.6 points. Meaning they score 98.9 points per game, but allow 98.3 to their opponents. If you compare that with the class of the conference, you see the Cleveland Cavaliers with a +6.5 point differential and a 13-4 record. So, like the Nuggets, the Bulls are still figuring out who they are and how to get there.

Regular Season Game 19
Nuggets (6-12)	@	Bulls (10-5)
6:00 p.m. MT	on	Altitude, 104.3 FM

 

For this preview let’s go through a little good news / bad news breakdown.

Good News: Denver has played pretty well at the United Center, posting a 7-8 record there since the 2000-01 season.

Bad News: The Bulls have protected their home floor well this season with a 6-1 record.

Good News: Gary Harris is enjoying a fine second-season posting 9.8 points per game to go along with 49.2 percent shooting from the field, including 43.8 percent from 3-point range on 3.0 attempts per game.

Bad News: Harris is listed as doubtful for tonight’s game as he’s still recovering from the concussion he suffered at the shoulder of the Spurs’ Kawhi Leonard.

Good News: It appears that Denver found two rotational players in their 2014 draft night trade with the Bulls in Jusuf Nurkic and Harris. Unfortunately, neither guy will be in uniform tonight.

Bad News: We’ll have to wait to see the two in action against their counterpart in that deal in Doug McDermott. Like Harris, McDermott has benefitted from a coaching change and is seeing steady action this season. McBuckets is averaging 9.0 points on 46.8 percent shooting, including 46.9 percent shooting from 3-point land on 3.3 attempts per game in 20.6 minutes a night.

Good News: Michael Malone is getting a healthier roster as Harris is close to returning and Kenneth Faried and Joffrey Lauvergne have both returned to action. Altitude TV’s Chris Marlowe also recently said on air that he talked to Nurkic and the big man is nearing a return too, hopefully around the end of December.

Bad News: Hopefully as the bodies get healthier they can help out with the team’s low shooting percentages. Currently Denver ranks 23rd in the league in field goal percentage at 42.6 percent.

Good News: The Bulls actually shoot worse than the Nuggets at 42.3 percent.

Bad News: You may want to watch this game with a blindfold on your eyes and forks shoved in your ears.

Good News: Jimmy Butler is buddies with Denver Broncos wide receiver Demaryius Thomas.

Bad News: Butler plays for the Bulls and is averaging 20.3 points per game and might be defended by Randy Foye for large chunks of the game.

Good News: Emmanuel Mudiay gets to test himself against another amazing point guard in Derrick Rose, who is averaging just over 32 minutes per game this season.

Bad News: There isn’t any bad news there, that’s actually an awesome match up.

Good News: Nikola Jokic will get to face five-time All-Star Pau Gasol, who is 35 years-old.

Bad News: Gasol is still a dominant player, but it’ll be a great test for Jokic.

***

Even though the Nuggets are 6-12, they are not too far off on where the schedule sort of dictated they would be at this point in the season. Yes, it would be nice to see them snap their seven game losing streak soon, as those can wear on a team, but other than the Milwaukee Bucks game (they were also 6-11 at the time of the game) the Nuggets weren’t supposed to beat any of the teams they faced along the way… at least not on paper. It would be nice to see Denver upset a worthy opponent and get Malone a “signature win” here soon, and it’ll be a good test tonight. The Bulls are not a dominant offensive team, and the Nuggets are due for a good shooting night at some point.

As we watch this season unfold, problems will arise and it’ll be up to the team to try to solve them and push forward. The offense has been stagnant too often recently and that’s an issue the team must work through. The schedule isn’t going to lighten up any time soon (the Sixers are coming up, but that’s just one game and not a guaranteed win), so the team must keep fighting and find a way to correct some of their issues.

We’ll see how things go in Chicago tonight.