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Injury-depleted Bulls blown out by Nuggets 112-94

The Bulls took their preseason show on the road Thursday and weren't sharp at all in a 112-94 loss to the Denver Nuggets in Boulder, Colo.

The only Bulls who could claim a decent performance were Nikola Mirotic, who scored 16 of his 18 points in the first half, and maybe Doug McDermott with 15 points. Jimmy Butler was limited to just 6 points on 2-of-10 shooting.

The Bulls cut way down on their 3-point attempts. After launching 39 shots from long range in Tuesday's opening win over Milwaukee, they went 9-for-21 against Denver. The Bulls shot 35 percent from the field overall.

The Bulls were missing several key players, once again. Pau Gasol (rest), Taj Gibson (ankle surgery), Derrick Rose (broken orbital bone) and Mike Dunleavy (back surgery) did not play. Kirk Hinrich did return after missing the preseason opener with a toe injury.

Coach Fred Hoiberg suggested he'd switch the starting lineup on Thursday and give Doug McDermott a chance to start at small forward. But he went with the same group he used on opening night, with Tony Snell at small forward and E'Twaun Moore at point guard, along with Jimmy Butler, Joakim Noah and Mirotic.

The first quarter went fine, with the Bulls building a 21-20 lead behind 9 points from Mirotic. But everything took a rotten turn quickly in the second quarter.

Denver opened the second with a monstrous 26-3 run, dominating a lineup that included Snell, McDermott, Bobby Portis, Aaron Brooks and Cameron Bairstow. The Bulls never made up much ground the rest of the way.

The Nuggets got 18 points from second-year power forward Joffrey Lauvergne and 17 from guard Will Barton.

The Bulls (1-1) move on to the second leg of this preseason road trip, facing Minnesota on Saturday in Winnipeg, Canada.

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