It’s been a tough road trip for the Denver Nuggets so far, they’ve had back to back late game losses to the Detroit Pistons and New York Knicks and suffered another injury (Peyton Watson) along the way. They’ll try to salvage something from this road trip tonight as they wrap up their travels facing the Chicago Bulls and also get a starter back. Chicago was one of the most active teams at the trade deadline, making a slew of deals that brought four new guards to the roster: Jaden Ivey, Rob Dillingham, Collin Sexton & Anfernee Simons. They also picked up big man Guerschon Yabusele. The immediate results were encouraging for Chicago. They still lost (what they are trying to do anyways) to the Toronto Raptors on Thursday, but Simons, Ivey and Yabusele all had strong debuts for their new team. On the Nuggets side, Cameron Johnson appears ready to make his return after missing a month and a half with a knee injury. It will be interesting to see how Denver approaches an opponent’s roster that is vastly different from what it was less than a week ago while continuing to manage the ever shuffling lineup on their end.
The Basics
Who: Denver Nuggets (33-19) at Chicago Bulls (24-28)
When: 6PM MST
Where: The real Mecca of basketball, United Center. Chicago, IL.
How to watch/listen: Altitude TV and Altitude Radio 92.5FM
Rival Blog: Pippen Ain’t Easy
The Matchup
| Position | Nuggets | Bulls | Advantage |
| PG | Jamal Murray | Jaden Ivey | Nuggets |
| SG | Jalen Pickett | Anfernee Simons | Bulls |
| SF | Christian Braun | Isaac Okoro | Even |
| PF | Cameron Johnson | Matas Buzelis | Bulls |
| C | Nikola Jokic | Jalen Smith | Nuggets |
| Bench | Bruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas, Julian Strawther | Collin Sexton, Guerschon Yabusele, Patrick Williams, Rob Dillingham | Even |
Injury report: Christian Braun – probable (ankle), Nikola Jokic – questionable (ankle), Cameron Johnson – questionable (knee), Aaron Gordon – out (hamstring), Peyton Watson – out (hamstring), Spencer Jones – out (concussion protocol), Tamar Bates – out (foot), Curtis Jones – out (G-League); Jalen Smith – questionable (calf), Zach Collins – out (toe), Noa Essengue – out (shoulder), Josh Giddey – out (hamstring), Tre Jones – out (hamstring).
The Three Things
The thing to watch for: Who the hell is playing in this game anyway?
Shoutout to the injury report for bumping up the word count. The Nuggets injury woes continue…and yet somehow get better simultaneously? Denver has been welcoming back some long time missing regulars. Nikola Jokic returned to the lineup after a 16 game absence and Chrstian Braun, who has missed most of the season, returned shorty thereafter. On the other hand, Aaron Gordon went back down with a hamstring strain and now Peyton Watson joins him with the same ailment. The Nuggets traded Hunter Tyson so they could convert Spencer Jones to a full contract and make him available on the roster again…only to watch him get a concussion 12 minutes into his first game as a fully guaranteed NBA player…buuuuuuuuut Johnson, who’s been out since December 23rd, may make his return tonight. Listen, that matchup board is a best guess. I have no idea what David Adelman’s plan is tonight, hell he probably barely has an idea of what the plan is tonight.
The thing to remember: The Bulls made lots of trades…and are still bad
Those are some recognizable names Chicago added to the roster this week and you might think they are trying to make a run at the playoffs, you’d be wrong though. The Bulls want to lose, Arturas Karnisovas said everything but the word “rebuild” while essentially describing the Bulls transition to a rebuild during his press conference on Thursday. While adding some quality players, Chicago’s actions at the deadline were more an admission that the drafted talent (Coby White, Dalen Terry, Ayo Dosounmo) and signature trades (Nikola Vucevic) that comprised the core of the early 2020s Bulls were not working.
Those recognizable names Chicago traded for haven’t exactly been panning out recently either. Yabusele was completely out of the Knicks rotation, Dillingham never really cracked the Minnesota Timberwolves’, Ivey fell out of the Pistons starting lineup and Sexton never really lived up to his contract. Denver should win this game, however it’ll be a bit of a mystery playing a group that has logged almost no minutes together.
The thing to bet: Cameron Johnson over 9.5 points (-110)
Alright, definitely gambling here but we need just 10 points out of Cam in his return, it feels so gettable! The risk is we know Johnson will be on a minutes restriction& he’s also got about 6 weeks of rust to shake off here. Denver doesn’t have a ton of scoring options though. Sure Jamal Murray and Jokic will do their thing, but after that who knows with Gordon and Watson both out and Braun still working his way back into the swing of things (10.5 points on -136 if you like his points line better). Johnson seems as good of pick as any to score 10 points and it’s almost coin flip odds.
