First Quarter

The Nuggets set a tone early in this game, one where they let ten points slip to the Bulls in the first two minutes. Lonzo Ball was just returning from injury and immediately had a rhythm three-pointer drop, and so did Ayo Dosunmu. That lack of defensive prowess early on forced Michael Malone to call a timeout at the 9:53 mark in the first quarter. The Nuggets had put up eight of their own by that point.

Coming out of that timeout, there were severe offensive issues for both teams. It wasn’t particularly because of good defense by either team, just both teams missing shots. The Nuggets started to get some transition offense to go, but it would be quickly erased by a rogue Bulls three-pointer. Jokic had twelve points in the opening frame, and Christian Braun had nine as well. A couple of the buckets by Jokic came from fastbreak dunks, and they resulted in massive bench celebrations each time.

Despite Aaron Gordon saying he was ready to start again, he continued to come off the bench in this one. After he came in at around the four minute mark, he established himself with a couple baskets. That’s including the last one of the quarter for the Nuggets – an alley oop from Joker. Neither team played good defense either, with the Nuggets leading 35-32 after the first frame.

Second Quarter

The start to the non-Jokic minutes went well in the first few minutes to open the second quarter. Aaron Gordon and Jamal Murray both had possessions where they bullied their ways to the rim, and got layups to go. The Bulls also missed all but one shot before taking a timeout early at the 9:28 mark. The rest of the bench minutes went about the same, though the Bulls provided more resistance. They won those minutes by two, and relative to other non-Jokic minutes – you take those.

The rest of the quarter saw the Nuggets extend a slight lead, it got up to twelve points at one point. Jokic continued to dominate inside, as did the team as a whole. However, the game remained close. This is despite the Nuggets having fifty points in the paint to the Bulls’ fourteen. While the offense is good enough to outscore lackluster teams, and sometimes good to great teams, it’s clear that the math problem might become an issue for the Nuggets in the postseason.

They only took a seven point lead into the half, with a score of 68-61. That’s with Nikola Jokic having 21 points, 8 rebounds, and 5 assists on perfect 10/10 shooting. If the Nuggets really wanted to lock in a win, they’d need to sure up defensively, and Jamal Murray would need to do better than 11 points on 5/13 from the field. They’d also need to keep feasting in transition, where they outscored the Bulls 20-0 in the first half on. It was where a good amount of their offense was coming from.

Third Quarter

The second half started with Nikola Jokic’s fourth dunk of the game. After the Bulls got a three to drop from Vucevic, Russell Westbrook had two layups back-to-back. That was enough to get Billy Donovan to call a timeout at just the 10:15 mark. Less than two minutes in. Though whatever he said in that huddle worked – a ten point lead quickly collapsed to a three point lead as the Bulls went on an 7-0 run in the next minute and change. That prompted Michael Malone to take a timeout of his own.

That prompted a run of their own, going back up by double digits during that quarter. The entire team was doing well on offense, and Russell Westbrook was doing a good job guarding Zach Lavine. Nikola Jokic continued to dominate as well, and finished the quarter with 10 points in it, and 31 on the whole game. The defense did slip though for the most part and the Nuggets went into the final frame only up 96-95.

Fourth Quarter

Sometimes, basketball is just ugly. That’s okay if it’s a youth league, or if it’s high school. Even college is known for that! However, the first four minutes of this quarter were bad for the Nuggets. They didn’t even score a point until the 8 minute mark. The Bulls had gotten it up to a 12 point lead by that point. The rest of the game wasn’t pretty either. Despite some attempted late game heroics, the Nuggets just collapsed during this quarter. They got outscored 34-25 in the final frame and ended up losing 129-121.

That is in spite of the fact that Jokic and Christian Braun had 33 and 28 respectively, both on above 70% from the field. The Nuggets obviously need to make some moves to improve the roster, and it’s another tough loss to start a losing streak.