Preview: Nuggets at Bulls

[December 02, 2015]  The Chicago Bulls earned one of their most impressive victories of the young season on Monday, grinding out a home win over the San Antonio Spurs 92-89. The Bulls will try to keep up that same intensity and send the visiting Denver Nuggets to an eighth straight loss on Wednesday.

Chicago has won six of its last eight games and knocked off the Spurs despite guard Jimmy Butler suffering through a heel injury. "I don't think anybody cares that I'm injured," Butler told reporters. "Nobody feels sorry for me. So you've got to play." The Nuggets failed to score more than 81 points in any of the last three games and bottomed out with a 92-74 loss at Milwaukee on Monday. “I just don’t know how much it hurts for those guys in that locker room,” Denver coach Michael Malone told reporters. “I know some guys care, some guys hate to lose. I think other guys like to win, and there’s a big difference.”

TV: 8 p.m. ET, Altitude (Denver), CSN Chicago

ABOUT THE NUGGETS (6-12): Malone’s big issue with his team’s performance on Monday was ball security, and Denver committed 24 turnovers that led to 35 points for the Bucks in the loss. “The fact of the matter is we're not a good enough offensive team to make up those points," Malone told reporters. "We're one of the poorer shooting teams in the NBA. We're one of the poorer finishing teams in the NBA, so if you give a team 35 points that is a hole that we have a very hard time digging out of.” Rookie point guard Emmanuel Mudiay committed five of those turnovers on Monday and is averaging four on the season.

ABOUT THE BULLS (10-5): Butler’s heel injury is preventing him from driving hard to the rim and he is averaging just 10.7 field-goal attempts in three games since suffering the injury at Golden State. "We want him to do more,” Chicago point guard Derrick Rose told reporters of Butler. “We're not rushing him, we're not pushing him to do it. We're going to wait for him to get comfortable, more comfortable with taking those (aggressive) shots. That's something that we want for him." Butler went 5-of-9 from the floor en route to 14 points against the Spurs.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Nuggets G Randy Foye is 3-of-16 from the field in the last two games and is shooting 29 percent overall.

2. Bulls F Mike Dunleavy suffered a setback in his return from back surgery and has been shut down indefinitely.

3. The home team has taken each of the last four in the series.

PREDICTION: Bulls 95, Nuggets 81

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