The Chicago Bulls will look to take down their second straight Western Conference contender when they visit the Denver Nuggets on Monday night.
Chicago (31-40), which routed the Los Angeles Lakers 146-115 on Saturday in LeBron James’ return to the lineup, has a chance to finish its season-long six-game road trip with a winning record. The Bulls have won their last two contests by double digits and strengthened their position in the Eastern Conference play-in bracket.
They’ve stayed in the playoff hunt with big wins on the road. Chicago has won five of its last seven away from home, and the two losses were close, by three at Houston and by six at Phoenix.
Coby White has been a catalyst, leading the team in points in 10 of the last 12 games to lift his season average to 20 points per game. Nikola Vucevic is second at 18.6, and Josh Giddey is averaging 14.
When White isn’t leading the team’s offense, Giddey, who had a career-high 17 assists in his triple-double at Los Angeles, is filling that role. He had 26 points in a win at Miami on March 8 and 29 in a victory over Indiana two days later, which has coincided with his improvement from deep. He is shooting a career-best 37.9 percent from 3-point range.
“I started to figure out the last two months, missed shot, made shot, move on to the next one,” Giddey said. “That mindset has kind of been drilled into me, and that’s helped a lot. Now I’m to the point that if I shoot 10 and miss, I shoot the 11th.”
The Bulls won’t have guard Tre Jones, who is expected to miss at least two weeks with a sprained left foot sustained at Sacramento on Thursday night.
Meanwhile, the Nuggets (45-27), who are coming off a 116-111 victory Sunday at Houston, are 12-2 on the second night of back-to-back games, and they will not have MVP candidate Nikola Jokic on Monday.
Jokic missed the Nuggets’ 4-4 road trip with a left ankle injury and also has been dealing with a sore right elbow.
Denver won at Golden State on Monday without Jokic, Jamal Murray and Christian Braun.
Jokic leads the Nuggets in scoring (29.1 ppg), rebounding (12.9) and assists (10.3). Murray is second in scoring at 21.6 points, and Braun (15) is fourth behind Michael Porter Jr.’s 18.2 points a game.
Murray missed the first two games of the road trip, and Braun returned after sitting out one. They weren’t able to help against the Lakers and Portland, but their offense wasn’t the problem. Denver, which is 9-8 since the All-Star break, is 24th in points allowed in the NBA.
Veteran Russell Westbrook has done his best to pick up the slack, recording his NBA-record 203rd career triple-double in the win over the Warriors.
“First off, Russ is not just a dog. He’s a wolf,” teammate Aaron Gordon said. “He’s different. Offensively and defensively, he’s always on 10, always on 12.”
Murray was the hero Sunday, scoring 39 points on 15-for-28 shooting after attempting just 10 shots in Portland.
