Chicago @ Oklahoma City preview

Last Meeting ( Dec 17, 2018 ) Chicago 96, Oklahoma City 121

The Chicago Bulls can't seem to decide what kind of team they want to be, though the good version might be capable of making a run at the playoffs. The Bulls will try to put together two strong performances in a row when they visit the Oklahoma City Thunder on Monday.

Chicago showed off its Jekyll and Hyde nature last week by beating Atlanta 136-102, falling to the Charlotte Hornets 83-73 and then knocking off Western Conference powerhouse the Los Angeles Clippers 109-106 on Saturday. "Kind of gets the monkey off our back a little bit," Bulls point guard Kris Dunn told reporters after beating the Clippers. "Got to take this and build momentum to the road trip we have. We have OKC next and we gotta go in there and we gotta do the same thing. You gotta go in there and be tough and you gotta scratch a win out." The Thunder were riding a hot streak before finishing out a four-game road trip with tight losses at Sacramento and Denver and were disappointed with the lack of urgency at the start against the Nuggets. "We just dug ourselves a big hole," Oklahoma City point guard Chris Paul told reporters. "They got going early. We played well in spurts, but we've been saying it all season long we need to put 48 minutes together. We definitely needed to pick up the intensity."

TV: 8 p.m. ET, NBCS Chicago, FS Oklahoma

ABOUT THE BULLS (10-18): Zach LaVine was held to 12 points on 4-of-19 shooting in Friday's loss to Charlotte but bounced back the next night, pouring in 31 points while going 11-of-21 from the floor against the Clippers. "We've been playing good (lately) but we just haven't been able to get that win in the last two minutes or three minutes of the game," LaVine, whose three-point play in the final seconds provided the winning margin, told reporters. "So, it feels good to go out on a high note, hopefully we start stringing some together." Forward Lauri Markkanen collected 13 points and 17 rebounds in the win to record his third double-double of the season.

ABOUT THE THUNDER (11-14): Oklahoma City struggled to keep pace with the Nuggets in part because Danilo Gallnari was suffering through an awful shooting night and finished with seven points on 1-of-13 from the field. The veteran forward missed one game with an ankle injury early last week and is a combined 6-of-26 in two games since coming back. Reserve point guard Dennis Schroder is having no trouble finding the basket of late and finished with 22 points on Saturday to reach at least 20 for the fourth time in the last five games.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Bulls SG Denzel Valentine scored a season-high 16 points on Saturday.

2. Thunder SG Terrance Ferguson (hip) sat out the last five games and is day-to-day.

3. The home team took each of the two meetings last season.

PREDICTION: Thunder 103, Bulls 99