Bulls at Cavaliers
The Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers are sitting in 14th and 15th in the Eastern Conference, respectively, and both look like teams destined to be fighting for spots in the NBA draft lottery. The Bulls will try to avoid an 11th consecutive setback when they visit the Cavaliers on Monday.
Chicago sits 1 1/2 games ahead of Cleveland in the East but is dropping fast and fell at home to the Miami Heat 117-103 on Saturday - the sixth double-digit loss in the last nine contests. "Something is obviously wrong," Bulls guard Zach LaVine told reporters. "We weren't losing by double digits earlier in the season. We might've been losing but we didn't even have a full roster. I don't know. We're a better team now. And we're getting blown out. It doesn't make a lot of sense." The Cavaliers are dealing with a rash of injuries and are returning home after a 1-5 road trip ended with a 124-102 loss at Denver on Saturday. "It's hard to gauge how this road trip went," guard Jordan Clarkson told cleveland.com. "S---, we're missing our whole damn frontcourt and we have to learn how to play through that kind of stuff and still find a way to compete."
TV: 1 p.m. ET, NBCS Chicago, FS Ohio (Cleveland)
ABOUT THE BULLS (10-36): Chicago was outscored 62-46 in the second half on Saturday after going into the break with a lead and ended up shooting 39.3 percent from the floor in the loss. Point guard Kris Dunn went 3-of-14 from the floor against Miami and is shooting 28.6 percent over the last five games after going 27-of-50 in the previous four contests. Power forward Bobby Portis managed to break out of a shooting slump on Saturday, going 8-of-12 from the floor after missing 19 of 24 shots in the previous two games.
ABOUT THE CAVALIERS (9-38): Cleveland is especially thin in the front court, where Kevin Love (foot), Tristan Thompson (foot), David Nwaba (ankle) and Larry Nance Jr. (knee) were all out as the team finished up the road trip. "We knew coming into the trip it would be tough playing against some really talented basketball teams," Cavaliers coach Larry Drew told reporters. "We would have liked to have played better, but we played the hand that was dealt to us. Right now, the focus is just trying to our guys back. Trying to get Tristan back. Trying to get David back. Hopefully Kevin will be close to where he's able to be out on the floor. We desperately need to get our guys back, Larry Nance included." Thompson is the closest to making a return and could be back on Monday.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Cavaliers C Ante Zizic scored a career-high 23 points on Saturday.
2. Bulls PF Jabari Parker scored in double figures in each of the last four games after being largely removed from the rotation over the previous four weeks.
3. Chicago took the first two meetings this season, including a 112-92 triumph at Cleveland on Dec. 23.