Clippers at Bulls
The funk that plagued the Los Angeles Clippers during their homestand seems to have lifted somewhat since the team hit the road. The Clippers will try to cap off a winning excursion when they visit the Chicago Bulls in the finale of the four-game trip on Friday.
Los Angeles dropped four straight at home as part of a five-game slide before hitting the road and sandwiching wins over San Antonio and Miami around a loss at Dallas. The Clippers, who head home for three games before heading back out for a six-game trip starting Feb. 2, shot 52.9 percent from the floor in Wednesday's 111-99 triumph at Miami as small forward Tobias Harris bounced back from a terrible outing to lead the way with 31 points. The Bulls are losers of 11 of their last 12 games and failed to build any momentum off the lone win in that span, falling to the Atlanta Hawks 121-101 at home on Wednesday. "It's the defense we have to figure out," Chicago forward Lauri Markkanen told reporters. "We have to contest shots better. Obviously, we can score the ball. But we have to get some stops. Obviously, we are trying to push the ball faster, so there are more possessions. We're focusing on offense, so the basics have been slipping. So, we have to get back to work and work on defense more."
TV: 8 p.m. ET, FS Prime Ticket (Los Angeles), NBCS Chicago
ABOUT THE CLIPPERS (26-22): Harris managed eight points on 1-of-9 shooting in the loss at Dallas on Tuesday but was a different player the next night, going 12-of-19 from the floor at Miami. The 26-year-old small forward is making a bid for a spot in the All-Star game and is averaging 21 points on 50.1 percent shooting. "Great players don't have two bad ones in a row most of the time," Los Angeles coach Doc Rivers told reporters. "Sometimes they do but you know they're going to come out of it. Today he was scoring and doing the other stuff. To me, I'm so proud of him because last year he didn't know how to do that. This year he’s doing that, and it makes our team better."
ABOUT THE BULLS (11-37): Chicago is allowing opponents to shoot 46.6 percent from the floor on the season and let the lowly Hawks go off at 50 percent on Wednesday. "You just can't play offense, got to guard," point guard Kris Dunn told reporters. "To have a good defense, everyone has to be in sync, everyone be one. We all have to know what we are doing. In this league, one little mistake can lead to an open shot. When there are multiple mistakes, it leads to easy buckets. Guys got to knuckle down when it comes to game time, be more in sync, more focused and disciplined. Got to be able to want to guard. We gotta guard." Dunn recorded a pair of steals in each of the last three games and supplemented his defense on Wednesday with 16 points, matching his high this month.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Bulls PF Jabari Parker (knee) sat out Wednesday and is day-to-day.
2. Clippers C Marcin Gortat scored 10 points on Wednesday, snapping a string of nine straight games scoring in single digits.
3. Los Angeles took the last five in the series, including the last two at Chicago.