Bulls look to repeat last matchup with Cavs tonight on CSN

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Bulls blame themselves, not refs for home loss

Luol Deng, Joakim Noah, Nate Robinson and Jimmy Butler discuss losing the Pacers and aren't putting any blame on the referees - 12/5

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Pacers take down Bulls at home, 80-76

The Bulls scored a season-low 76 points and a late no-call on Roy Hibbert were factors in Chicago's four-point loss to the Pacers on Tuesday night - 12/4

MARK STROTMAN


After suffering through its worst offensive performance of the early season -- a 76-point effort in a loss to the Pacers last night -- the Bulls return to the spot where they enjoyed their best performance when they travel to Cleveland for a matchup with the Cavaliers tonight on Comcast SportsNet. Coverage begins at 6:30 with Bulls Pregame Live.

On Nov. 2, Tom Thibodeau's group traveled to Cleveland for its first road game of the year, and shot better than 63 percent from the field in a 115-86 win. Five players scored in double-digits, and four more scored 8 or 9 points in the Bulls' largest win of the season. Richard Hamilton and Carlos Boozer led the way with 19 points apiece, while Nate Robinson added 16 points off the bench.

Helping in Chicago's return to Cleveland tonight is that the Cavaliers are hurting. Point guard Kyrie Irving, who led the Cavs with 15 points in the previous matchup, is out with a broken finger, and rookie Dion Waiters, who scored 7 points in November but has improved since, is day-to-day with a sprained ankle. He is a game-time decision tonight, leaving Cleveland's backcourt thin for tonight's matchup.

Perhaps evening the playing field, however, will be Hamilton's absence. The Bulls' second-leading scorer suffered a torn plantar fascia on Saturday against Philadelphia, and will miss a week or more of action. Though Hamilton averaged 27.1 minutes per game, his numbers were missed last night as the Bulls shot just 38 percent from the field and received 10 points on 4-of-9 shooting from plug-in starter Marco Belinelli (5 points) and Jimmy Butler (4 points).

With the Bulls attempting to figure out their backcourt struggles -- starter Kirk Hinrich scored 17 points on 6-of-17 shooting the last three games -- they've relied on their frontcourt for scoring to complement leading scorer Luol Deng, namely Joakim Noah. The 6-foot-11 center has maintained his career-best pace in the scoring department (13.0 points on 10.5 field goal attempts) and he'll have his hands full against Cavs' center Anderson Varejao. The 30-year-old leads the league in rebounding (15.4 per game) and while his blocks are down he's improved his defense, which has been his calling card since he entered the league eight seasons ago. Noah had 10 points in the Nov. 2 meeting, while Varejao had his lowest rebounding total, five, in the blowout loss.

Yet Varejao has picked things up on the offensive end in Irving's and Waiters' absences, averaging 18.2 points on better than 56 percent shooting. Noah will have his hands full against the Cavs' new go-to option.

Though Varejao has improved on both ends, the Cavaliers have been one of the worst defensive teams in the league. To date, Cleveland is allowing opponents to shoot better than 48 percent from the field, the highest mark in the NBA, and 101.2 points, 25th worst in the league. If there's one team for the Bulls to get going against offensively, it's the injury-riddled Cavs.