The Oklahoma City Thunder and Chicago Bulls are playing on the Thursday night NBA schedule for the TNT doubleheader and the game has Derrick Rose, Kevin Durant and Russell Westbrook ready to battle. The game starts at 8 pm ET from the United Center and has the Bulls trying to bounce back from a bad loss.
The Bulls looked like a shell of the teams they have had over the past couple years while allowing the Hornets to score 130 points and now they have Durant and Westbrook to deal with. The team is putting in a new system with Fred Hoiberg taking over as head coach and the team has not put as much of a focus on defense and that was a major issue against the Hornets. Rose is still dealing with some double vision from his facial injury and he has been struggling offensively.
Rose said that he is improving and the Bulls have confidence that he can handle the offense despite his injuries. Rose has been scoring in the single digits for the last three games and he will try and snap out of that against OKC. The Bulls have been using Nikola Mirotic in the starting lineup over Joakim Noah and the team comes into the game at 3-2, while the Thunder are also 3-2 and they come in after losing to the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday.
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The Bulls were beaten on all levels against the Hornets and star Jimmy Butler said that he was not happy with the performance of the team. Butler had 26 points in the loss to the Hornets and Doug McDermott had a strong performance with 17 and those were two positive things from the blowout. Butler has been the offensive leader for the Bulls and Rose will be looking to get things back on track after putting up single digits again.
The Thunder had the lead against the Raptors in the fourth quarter, but the team went cold shooting and could not hold on. Russell westbrook had 22 points and 16 assists in the game, but he also had eight turnovers. Kevin Durant has played well to start the season and he had 27 points against the Raptors and he is averaging 29 points this season.
The Cavaliers and Pistons are ahead of the Bulls in the division standings for the moment and the team will try and get their fourth win of the season against the Thunder. Oklahoma City is bunched in with Minnesota and Portland in the standings and they are also looking for their fourth win of the season.