CHICAGO — In the midst of a seven-game losing streak, the Nuggets have made progress in an area that will be tested Wednesday night at Chicago.
Bulls guard Jimmy Butler. (Photo by Ezra Shaw/Getty Images)
Three-point defense.
In the last three games, the Nuggets are holding opponents to just 31 percent shooting from the arc. It’s a vast improvement from the huge numbers and percentages the team had been allowing for most of the season.
“Obviously, that’s something that we’ve done a lot better in our last three games,” said Nuggets coach Michael Malone after Wednesday morning’s shootaround at the United Center. “We’re holding teams to 91 points per game in our last three, 45 percent from the field and 31 from three. That’s great because prior to that we were one of the worst 3-point shooting defensive teams in the league.”
The Bulls are fourth in the NBA in 3-point percentage, making 38 percent of their shots from long range. But they don’t jack up a ton of them. Chicago is 21st in 3-point attempts, taking just 22.3, which incidentally, is four spots lower than the Nuggets average of 22.9. The Bulls most deadly from the 3-point line are Doug McDermott (46.9 percent), Tony Snell (44.9 percent) and Jimmy Butler (40 percent).
“They have talent,” Malone said. “They’re long, they’re athletic, they’ve been defending very well.”
Starting shooting guard Gary Harris will not play as he continues to recover from symptoms related to a concussion. And the Nuggets will miss him defensively. His first eye-opening moment of this new season came in the preseason when he effectively defended the explosive Butler.
But Malone knows for the Nuggets to grab a win on the home court of one of the best teams in the league, it comes down to one thing.
“The moral of the story, after two road games on a five-game road trip is stop beating ourselves,” he said. “This is another team that will get into you, be physical, and if we allow them to turn us over it could make for a very long night because they are a very good team on this home court.”
Follow Chris Dempsey on Twitter @dempseypost or email him at cdempsey@denverpost.com
