CHICAGO >> Michael Malone has called earlier timeouts and angrier timeouts, but the one he took Monday might have been his most clairvoyant.

It was two minutes and seven seconds into the game, and the Nuggets trailed the Bulls, 10-8. Denver was perfect on offense, 4 for 4 from the field on four possessions. But Chicago had scored every time down the floor as well. Consecutive 3-pointers for Lonzo Ball and Ayo Dosunmu were enough to force Malone’s eager hand.

“I knew right away. That’s why I took that (timeout),” he said after a 129-121 loss at the United Center. “We didn’t miss a shot, and I took a timeout because we were just trading baskets. … Our guys, they weren’t locked in. They weren’t ready to do the little things in order to get a road win, and it came back to bite us.”

The Nuggets (28-18) weren’t anywhere near their low point of the game yet, but they eventually blew a 12-point lead in the loss. They also gave up 24 3s, only one away from a Bulls single-game franchise record. Malone’s premonition was not enough to stop the flood, even if the timeout sent a blunt message.

As it so often does.

“He didn’t have to say much,” said Christian Braun, the team’s lead defensive guard. “I think we knew how bad we were playing.”

The use of a timeout speaks for itself on Malone’s sideline. He gets seven per game. They are his tactical currency and his emotional language. Early in the fourth quarter, he called two more of them 72 seconds apart, aggressively demanding the second one.

His most emphatic statements are the immediate ones. And they tend to correspond with looming disaster. While the Nuggets were in the process of giving up 145 points to New York in November, he burned a timeout less than two minutes after halftime. Against the Cavaliers, who were on their way to a season sweep of Denver, he used one 13 seconds into the second quarter after a Sam Merrill 3-pointer.

“That means you’re doing something wrong,” said Jamal Murray, who was a team-worst minus-16 in his 40 minutes Monday. “… And he was right. Coach was 100% right. (The Bulls) were too comfortable. Too easy. We made it like a back-and-forth fast break game, and that’s what they wanted. And that’s what they got.”

“We should have been up 20 at halftime,” Malone said. “We messed with the game.”

A second consecutive loss left Malone frustrated by his team’s lack of game plan retention. Before opening tip, Malone highlighted that the Bulls would hurry the ball up the floor even after a made basket. Chicago plays at the third-fastest pace in the league. They scored 15 fast break points on Denver in the second half alone.

“You tell them all morning: ‘This team’s gonna run. This team’s gonna run. This team’s gonna run,’” Malone said. “And our inability or unwillingness to get back, our inability or unwillingness to guard one-on-one, and our inability or unwillingness to rebound the basketball when they did miss — the few times they missed — was on full display.”

Defense on and off the ball continues to get in the way of the Nuggets’ winning streaks. They attempt the fewest 3s per game, but that generally doesn’t hurt them — except when they face teams that take a ton and make a ton. The Bulls are second in attempts behind Boston. Both their efficiency (45%) and their volume (53 attempts) were twice that of Denver’s on Monday.

Against teams that rank top-seven in 3-point attempts (as of Tuesday), the Nuggets are 2-7 this season. Their perimeter defense has not been good enough to justify their style of offense in those matchups. The margin for error is minimal.

“I think that just the bottom line is defending the 3-point line. You defend the 3-point line, then it doesn’t really matter,” Braun said. “Tonight we didn’t do that. The games where we’re playing teams that shoot a lot of them, you’ve gotta make it tough. I think so many times, teams are getting so many easy ones or shooting free ones. Maybe we didn’t talk, maybe we didn’t switch up. Tonight they hit a big one when we didn’t switch up. The bottom line is if you guard it, if the other team doesn’t score, you win the game, right?”

The play he was referring to occurred with 1:10 left. Zach LaVine, no longer a likely trade candidate on the Front Range, pulled the trigger when he received a ball screen and neither Braun nor Russell Westbrook stepped up on him.

Braun blames those miscommunications on himself. “That’s my job,” he said, disregarding his career-high scoring night. “I’ve gotta get everybody in line. I’ve gotta talk when we’re out there, and we’ve gotta just be tougher.”

LaVine’s dagger doubled Chicago’s lead and effectively sealed the result. Malone called a timeout.