Two teams trying to end skids square off Sunday night when the Chicago Bulls visit the Portland Trail Blazers.
Portland has dropped five straight games while Chicago has lost four in a row.
Four of those games in Portland’s losing streak have come at home, and the Trail Blazers have been beaten by an average of 22.5 points in those contests. The latest was Saturday’s 125-103 loss to the Houston Rockets.
“We just weren’t able to make them pay, if that makes sense,” Portland coach Chauncey Billups said after a game in which his squad was outscored 74-53 in the second half.
“You’re going to look at the final score and say, ‘You couldn’t go over the hump,’ but we did some pretty good things.”
Meanwhile, Chicago won the opener of a five-game homestand before losing four straight games.
Nikola Vucevic scored a season-best 40 points on Friday but the Bulls lost 125-123 to the Charlotte Hornets.
But Vucevic couldn’t enjoy the stellar effort as he missed a go-ahead 3-point attempt with 5.7 seconds left. An ensuing shot by Zach LaVine and a tip-in attempt by Ayo Dosunmu also came up empty.
“It felt good when it left my hand. It came up a bit short,” Vucevic said of his shot. “It’s unfortunate. We put ourselves in a very tough position, and you shouldn’t be in that situation to have to rely on a last shot to win. We just didn’t do enough to deserve to win, quite honestly.
“I think we’re resilient enough to fight through this. We have to do the things necessary to get it done.”
Vucevic has been hearing his name mentioned in trade speculation during a season in which he is shooting a career-best 56.1 percent. He is averaging 20.6 points and 10.4 rebounds.
But Chicago, which acquired DeMar DeRozan in a three-team offseason trade, isn’t clicking.
And the just-ended homestand was the latest example as the win came versus the NBA-worst Washington Wizards and two of the setbacks came against other bottom-feeders — the New Orleans Pelicans and Hornets.
“We didn’t do what we were supposed to do with five games at home,” Bulls guard Lonzo Ball said. “You have to get at least, in my opinion, four of those (games). We went the opposite direction. But we have a trip coming up and hopefully we can turn it around on the West Coast.”
After the visit in Portland, Chicago plays the Los Angeles Clippers on Monday and Golden State Warriors on Thursday before returning home.
Ball (quadriceps) is questionable for Sunday’s game, while LaVine (knee) is probable.
The Trail Blazers got forward Jerami Grant (facial contusion) back Saturday after a nine-game absence. The rust was evident as he scored just seven points in 25 minutes.
Portland had severe rebounding issues with Deandre Ayton (back), Deni Avdija (ankle) and Donovan Clingan (ankle) all sidelined. The Trail Blazers were outrebounded 61-40 and Houston cleaned up with 23 offensive boards and a 24-7 edge in second-chance points.
Billups said he feared such a dilemma even before the ball was tipped off.
“We were giving up so much size on the rebounding,” Billups said. “No D.A., no Donovan, no Deni, you know it’s going to be a rough night on the glass. It was just too overwhelming. You would’ve had to really shoot it well to stay in the fight.”
Portland likely will be without big man Robert Williams III on Sunday. He hasn’t played on back-to-back nights yet this season due to his knee issues.
This marks the first of two matchups between the Bulls and Trail Blazers this season. Chicago has won the past five meetings.
–Field Level Media
