3 takeaways from the Chicago Bulls’ 126-103 home loss against the Denver Nuggets

The Denver Nuggets outscored the Chicago Bulls 32-20 in the first quarter and never looked back, winning the game 126-103. Michael Porter Jr. led the Nuggets with a game-high 31 points, and Jamal Murray finished with 23 points, while Nikola Jokic added 8 points, 14 assists, 6 rebounds, and 3 steals.

Didn't have it tonight. On to the next. pic.twitter.com/mqZ5pfLC6U
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) November 14, 2022

On the other side, Zach LaVine led the Bulls with 21 points and DeMar DeRozan added 16 points and 4 assists in the loss.

The Bulls couldn’t contain MPJ and KCP

Our preview mentioned that the Bulls had to contain Porter Jr. and Kentavious Caldwell-Pope. Porter Jr.’s historic shooting start is a huge reason why the Nuggets’ offense fires on all cylinders regularly, and he had a monster game on Sunday with 31 points on 11-of-16 shooting and 6-of-9 from three-point range.

Caldwell-Pope added 10 points with 3 rebounds, 2 assists and 2 steals on 3-of-8 from the field. He missed the two three-point shots he attempted.

Three-point shooting and turnovers were costly

Three-point shooting was the big difference on Sunday. The Nuggets were 13-of-27 (48.1%) from three-point range, while the Bulls made just 6-of-22 (27.3%). LaVine, Vucevic, and DeRozan went a combined 2-of-10 from beyond the arc. LaVine made just 1 of his 6 attempts.

Bulls head coach Billy Donovan wants LaVine to attempt more three-point shots, particularly in catch-and-shoot situations when off-ball actions or his teammates draw help and force opponents into rotating. He wants LaVine to not worry about distributing to his teammates, especially if DeRozan draws double teams, but it’s clear that this strategy didn’t work against the Pelicans and Nuggets, as LaVine went a combined 4-of-18 (22.2%) from three-point range in those games.

Chicago finished the game with 18 turnovers, a big problem on Sunday.

Drummond and Dragic outplayed Vucevic and Dosunmu

Andre Drummond added depth and offense off the bench with 13 points and 11 rebounds in 22 minutes off the bench, and he helped slow down Jokic, but as encouraging as it is to see him produce like this, he outplayed Vucevic, who had just 9 points, 6 rebounds, and 3 turnovers.

Andre Drummond joins the 10,000 point club with this bucket!@AndreDrummond | @NBCSChicago pic.twitter.com/kr8x54oyK8
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) November 14, 2022

The same happened with Goran Dragic and Ayo Dosunmu. Dragic had a solid effort with 11 points and six assists on 5-of-10 shooting, but he outplayed Dosunmu, who finished with 7 points and 4 assists on 3-of-9 from the field and 0-of-4 from beyond the arc.

Drummond and Dragic did their part, but the Bulls need more production from Vucevic and Dosunmu.