{"id":588796,"date":"2026-02-07T18:16:14","date_gmt":"2026-02-07T18:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/588796\/"},"modified":"2026-02-07T18:16:14","modified_gmt":"2026-02-07T18:16:14","slug":"preview-denver-nuggets-try-to-get-right-at-chicago-bulls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/588796\/","title":{"rendered":"Preview: Denver Nuggets try to get right at Chicago Bulls"},"content":{"rendered":"

It\u2019s been a tough road trip for the Denver Nuggets so far, they\u2019ve 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\u2019ll 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\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The Basics<\/p>\n

Who: Denver Nuggets (33-19) at Chicago Bulls (24-28)<\/p>\n

When: 6PM MST<\/p>\n

Where: The real Mecca of basketball, United Center. Chicago, IL.<\/p>\n

How to watch\/listen: Altitude TV and Altitude Radio 92.5FM<\/p>\n

Rival Blog: Pippen Ain\u2019t Easy<\/a><\/p>\n

The Matchup<\/p>\n

PositionNuggetsBullsAdvantagePGJamal MurrayJaden IveyNuggetsSGJalen PickettAnfernee SimonsBullsSFChristian BraunIsaac OkoroEvenPFCameron JohnsonMatas BuzelisBullsCNikola JokicJalen SmithNuggetsBenchBruce Brown, Tim Hardaway Jr., Jonas Valanciunas, Julian StrawtherCollin Sexton, Guerschon Yabusele, Patrick Williams, Rob DillinghamEven<\/p>\n

Injury report: Christian Braun \u2013 probable (ankle), Nikola Jokic \u2013 questionable (ankle), Cameron Johnson \u2013 questionable (knee), Aaron Gordon \u2013 out (hamstring), Peyton Watson \u2013 out (hamstring), Spencer Jones \u2013 out (concussion protocol), Tamar Bates \u2013 out (foot), Curtis Jones \u2013 out (G-League); Jalen Smith \u2013 questionable (calf), Zach Collins \u2013 out (toe), Noa Essengue \u2013 out (shoulder), Josh Giddey \u2013 out (hamstring), Tre Jones \u2013 out (hamstring).<\/p>\n

The Three Things<\/p>\n

The thing to watch for: Who the hell is playing in this game anyway?<\/p>\n

Shoutout to the injury report for bumping up the word count. The Nuggets injury woes continue\u2026and 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\u2026only to watch him get a concussion 12 minutes into his first game as a fully guaranteed NBA player\u2026buuuuuuuuut Johnson, who\u2019s 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\u2019s plan is tonight, hell he probably barely has an idea of what the plan is tonight.<\/p>\n

The thing to remember: The Bulls made lots of trades\u2026and are still bad<\/p>\n

\"\"Feb 5, 2026; Toronto, Ontario, CAN; Chicago Bulls guard Jaden Ivey (31) passes against the Toronto Raptors in the second half at Scotiabank Arena. Mandatory Credit: Dan Hamilton-Imagn Images<\/p>\n

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\u2019d be wrong though. The Bulls want to lose, Arturas Karnisovas said everything but the word \u201crebuild\u201d while essentially describing the Bulls transition to a rebuild during his press conference on Thursday. While adding some quality players, Chicago\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n

Those recognizable names Chicago traded for haven\u2019t exactly been panning out recently either. Yabusele was completely out of the Knicks rotation, Dillingham never really cracked the Minnesota Timberwolves\u2019, Ivey fell out of the Pistons starting lineup and Sexton never really lived up to his contract. Denver should win this game, however it\u2019ll be a bit of a mystery playing a group that has logged almost no minutes together.<\/p>\n

The thing to bet: Cameron Johnson over 9.5 points (-110)<\/p>\n

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\u2019s also got about 6 weeks of rust to shake off here. Denver doesn\u2019t 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\u2019s almost coin flip odds.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"It\u2019s been a tough road trip for the Denver Nuggets so far, they\u2019ve had back to back late…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":588797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[3781],"tags":[877,7,2726,329,561,301,187,3943,762,965,973,6,253,302,66],"class_list":{"0":"post-588796","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-denver-nuggets","8":"tag-aaron-gordon","9":"tag-basketball","10":"tag-cameron-johnson","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-christian-braun","13":"tag-denver","14":"tag-denver-nuggets","15":"tag-denvernuggets","16":"tag-jamal-murray","17":"tag-josh-giddey","18":"tag-matas-buzelis","19":"tag-nba","20":"tag-nikola-jokic","21":"tag-nuggets","22":"tag-sports"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/116030720453203928","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/588797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}