The Chicago Bulls and host Toronto Raptors will both be seeking their first NBA in-season tournament win when they clash on Friday night.
The Bulls and Raptors sit at the bottom of the standings in East Group C with 0-2 records in the tournament.
Toronto is coming off a split of a two-game road trip. It lost 126-107 to the Orlando Magic in a tournament game on Tuesday before defeating the Indiana Pacers 132-131 on Wednesday in a regular-season game at Indianapolis.
Chicago lost 116-102 to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday. The Bulls have lost five of their past six games.
Chicago did not have guard Zach LaVine (right foot soreness) for Wednesday’s game.
LaVine said that he started to notice pain in his foot against the Miami Heat last Saturday, cutting the tape off of it at halftime of the Bulls’ 102-97 victory in an attempt to reduce the discomfort.
“During the Miami games, it was bugging me,” LaVine said. “Obviously, just trying (Wednesday), it felt the same if not worse. Did a lot of warmups, a lot of treatment over the last couple of days. It didn’t feel right. Giving it a day, see how it feels. We’ll figure it out and get me feeling better.”
LaVine played through the pain in a second game against Miami on Monday, a 118-100 Bulls loss.
Bulls coach Billy Donovan said LaVine’s status will be determined game to game. LaVine said his path to recovery will be “nothing major,” and he could be good to go for the game against Toronto on Friday.
“I don’t like sitting out of basketball,” LaVine said. “I’ve missed enough games in my career. I try to play through everything.”
DeMar DeRozan scored 25 points for Chicago on Wednesday and Coby White added 23.
“It’s a struggle when you lose, but I see them fighting and trying,” Donovan said. “We just haven’t been consistent enough, and we haven’t been consistent in shooting the basketball. I felt our guys were really trying. We just have these stretches where we dig ourselves somewhat of a hole. We just have to keep fighting through and being more consistent.”
Pascal Siakam had 36 points and 10 rebounds for the Raptors in their win over the Pacers. Scottie Barnes made a go-ahead dunk with 27.1 seconds left and finished with 20 points and 12 rebounds.
Dennis Schroder added 26 points. Siakam made 13 of 24 shots from the field.
“Pascal was amazing,” Raptors coach Darko Rajakovic said. “He was so aggressive. He scored points in the paint and was versatile, driving to the rim.”
The Pacers had set a franchise scoring record on Tuesday night when they beat the host Atlanta Hawks 157-152. Rajakovic said the goal was to limit the Pacers’ running game.
“We knew they were going to be a team that was going to try to run and score a lot,” Rajakovic said. “I thought in the first half we did a good job in transition. They only got five points in transition. We continued to preach to slow those guys down and make them a half-court team. We talked about not letting them shoot early in the shot clock.”
The Raptors played without Precious Achiuwa (sore right knee).
The Bulls won 104-103 in overtime on Oct. 27 in the first game this season between the teams. That contest was played in Chicago.
–Field Level Media