Rose And Bulls Take On Nowitzki And Mavericks
Without Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah, the Chicago Bulls dropped a game to the Charlotte Bobcats. Tonight, the Bulls prepare for the Dallas Mavericks to come to the United Center, where the Bulls have played well all season.
After defeating the two-time defending NBA champions to snap their longest skid of the season, the Mavericks need to maintain that momentum while trying to end another losing streak.
The Mavericks look to avoid a fifth consecutive road loss when they face the Chicago Bulls on Thursday night.
Dallas (27-14) snapped a six-game losing streak with Wednesday's 109-100 home win over the Los Angeles Lakers.
"We needed this one," forward Shawn Marion said
Despite losing nine of 12, the Mavericks are third in the Western Conference and hoping their latest victory will start a streak in the positive direction.
While Dirk Nowitzki had 14 points with eight rebounds in his third game back since missing nine with a knee injury, Marion and Jason Terry each scored 22 and Jason Kidd broke out for a season-high 21 with 10 assists. The Mavericks shot 55.0 percent while topping 100 points for the third time in 12 contests.
"We know what we are capable of doing night in and night out, but we have to bring it," Terry said. "Of late we've had some inconsistency and people going in and out of the lineup, but now we are going to be able to see what we have again once we are consistent with our lineup again."
Dallas averaged 89.8 points during the six-game skid. It's averaged 84.3 on 41.0 percent shooting during its current season-high four-game road losing streak.
The Mavericks, who lost 88-83 at home to the Bulls (28-14) on Nov. 19, have not lost five straight on the road since Feb. 5-March 5, 2009.
Dallas won 122-116 in its last visit to Chicago on March 6. Nowitzki scored 27 points in that contest, and 36 against the Bulls in November.
Though Kidd made 8 of 12 shots Wednesday after going 1 of 14 the previous two games, the veteran point guard has totaled 23 points on 8-of-25 shooting his last five versus Chicago.
Bulls All-Star Derrick Rose has averaged 33.0 points on 48.9 percent shooting over his last four home contests.
He hit that average Tuesday, but the Bulls had their eight-game home winning streak snapped with an 83-82 loss to Charlotte. Chicago's 39.0 percent shooting was a season low at the United Center.
Rose might be trying to carry too much of the scoring load while Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah remain out with injuries. Noah (14.0 points, 11.7 rebounds per game) is still a few weeks from returning from a thumb injury while Boozer (20.1 ppg, 10.1 rpg) is expected to miss a third straight game with a sprained ankle.
"We're missing some key players, but we still could have won (Tuesday's) game," said Rose, averaging 26.0 points on 53.1 percent shooting his last three games versus Dallas. "We've got to take it out on the next team."
Chicago may need Luol Deng (17.8 ppg) to bounce back after being held to 10 points on 2-of-11 shooting as the short-handed Bulls tried to win their fourth game in five nights.
"We can't think of fatigue," Deng told the Bulls' official website. "We're really trying not to. We feel we have a deep enough team. I don't want to make excuses."
Chicago has averaged 105.3 points while going 7-1 at home against teams from the Western Conference this season.
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