Bulls at Raptors
The Toronto Raptors look to be settling into the No. 2 spot in the Eastern Conference with two-plus weeks left in the regular season but would prefer to be playing better down the stretch. The Raptors will try to shake off a last-second loss and avoid a three-game slide when they host the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday.
Toronto fell to a stumbling Oklahoma City squad on Friday and dropped a 115-114 decision to Charlotte at home on Sunday, when Hornets guard Jeremy Lamb buried a half-court buzzer-beater. The Raptors fell to four games behind the NBA-best Milwaukee Bucks with eight games remaining and are 3 1/2 games clear of third-place Philadelphia entering play on Monday. The Bulls put together back-to-back wins before falling off against the Utah Jazz on Saturday and getting crushed 114-83. "Obviously, when you dig a 36-point hole or whatever it was, it's kind of hard to come back from that," Chicago forward Lauri Markkanen told reporters. "You gotta compete every night no matter who you're playing against, and I don't think we did that in the first half. And that's pretty much the storyline."
TV: 7:30 p.m. ET, NBCS Chicago, TSN (Toronto)
ABOUT THE BULLS (21-53): Chicago is trying to compete shorthanded and indicated on Saturday that key starters Otto Porter Jr. (shoulder) and Zach LaVine (knee) might not make it back before the end of the regular season. "Otto has had a lot of little nagging injuries that we're trying to pay attention to, and Zach has that patellar tendinitis that he's been dealing with," team president John Paxson told reporters. "We're going to monitor them on a day-to-day basis." The Bulls took off when Porter arrived in a trade from the Washington Wizards at the deadline, winning six of his first eight games with the team, and LaVine leads the team in scoring (23.7 points).
ABOUT THE RAPTORS (51-23): Toronto is trying to find a rhythm with its full lineup healthy and finally had all the pieces together on Sunday with All-Star point guard Kyle Lowry (ankle) returning from a two-game absence and contributing six assists in 28 minutes. The Raptors shot 58.4 percent from the floor and placed six scorers in double figures, led by Kawhi Leonard's 28 points, but allowed the Hornets to knock down 18 3-pointers and saw their 13 turnovers turned into 18 points in the loss. Power forward Pascal Siakam is averaging 27 points over the last three games but totaled 17 turnovers in that span, including five on Sunday.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Raptors C Marc Gasol scored 17 points on 7-of-9 shooting Sunday, his highest total since dropping 19 in a win over Portland on March 1.
2. Bulls PG Kris Dunn (back, neck) played through pain on Saturday and was limited to four points on 1-of-8 shooting in 21 minutes.
3. Toronto, which visits Chicago on Saturday, took the first two meetings by an average of 22.5 points.