Jokic gets ejected, but Nuggets still too strong for Bulls
Sometimes fans don’t get what they paid to see.
No one saw a Bulls victory on Tuesday at the United Center. The Bulls were bullied by the defending champion Denver Nuggets and lost for the second time in two nights 114-106.
The most significant event was a key player missing half the action. Denver center Nikola Jokic was ejected just before halftime for arguing the lack of a foul call.
Fans at the United Center booed as Jokic jogged to the locker room, then booed again when the ejection was announced by the p.a. announcer. The decision benefited the Bulls, but Jokic’s departure was clearly unpopular with the fans, especially those from his native Serbia.
“Second biggest Serbian population is here,” Jokic said after the game. “Belgrade is first and Chicago is second, so maybe they came to see me.”
Jokic missed a shot under the basket and thought he got fouled by Nikola Vucevic. As players ran toward the other end, Jokic veered toward referee Mousa Dagher and had something to say. As Jokic kept running to the defensive end and play continued, Dagher stopped at midcourt and gave the heave-ho signal.
“To me, (the ejection) seemed excessive,” Vucevic said. “Sure, a tech or whatever, but ejection was a little bit too much for what happened. (He said it) in English, that’s why I tell him you can’t do it in English.”
Jokic and Denver coach Mike Malone couldn’t believe it, but it was clear what happened. The two-time MVP was ejected with 1:08 left in the first half. There was no warning, no technical foul.
Inside the visitors locker room, Jokic admitted to using a popular two-word curse.
“I crossed the line, but sometimes that word doesn’t cross the line,” he said. “Sometimes it’s nothing or a technical. But I crossed the line, I understand, but sometimes that word doesn’t cross the line.”
Jokic was ejected from a Nov. 20 game at Detroit, so this is becoming a trend for some reason.
“I like my money, so I’m not going to say anything,” Jokic said. “We won both the games, so maybe that’s the way to go.”
Vucevic delivered his usual strong game against Jokic, at least for half the game. The Bulls center finished with 26 points and 16 rebounds. Coby White stayed hot, leading the team with 27 points and 8 assists, while knocking down 5 of 10 3-pointers.
Otherwise, the Bulls needed more contributors. DeMar DeRozan hit just 3 of 13 shots for 14 points. Patrick Williams and Torrey Craig had quiet games.
Denver’s second-leading scorer Jamal Murray did not play due to an ankle injury. For the Bulls, Alex Caruso missed his second straight game with an ankle sprain.
“The feeling I got is we might have relaxed a little bit with Jokic out of the game,” Vucevic said. “They really took it to us and we played catch up from there.”
The Bulls had trouble matching up with Denver’s size. It wasn’t so much Jokic, who finished with 4 points, but Aaron Gordon, Michael Porter Jr., and Christian Braun all had success in the post against smaller defenders. Then when the Bulls resorted to sending extra defenders to the lane, they’d get burned from 3-point range.
Both teams were playing the second leg of back-to-back games, though the Bulls played an extra five minutes Monday in Milwaukee. The Bulls have now two lost straight after a four-game win streak, with two games in Miami up next.
“We didn’t do enough to win the game, they did,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “We didn’t protect the rim well enough, in terms of the support on rolls and drive; and then I thought the other part of it was we fouled too much. We’ve got to find a way to clean that up. We’ve got to have better positioning with our hands and our feet and be more disciplined in those situations.”