The Smoothie King Center will play host to a Thursday night NBA clash between the Chicago Bulls and the New Orleans Pelicans. The Bulls (42-30) have dropped seven of their last ten games and have fallen into fifth place in the East. On Tuesday, Chicago trailed by 13 points after one quarter and allowed Milwaukee to shoot 61 percent from the field during an ugly 126-98 road loss.
Chicago C Nikola Vucevic tallied a team-high 22 points on 9-for-15 shooting and pulled down seven boards. All-Stars Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan added 21 points each for the Bulls.
The New Orleans Pelicans are four games below .500 at home and trail Los Angeles by one full game for ninth place in the West. On Monday, New Orleans was outscored by nine points during the fourth quarter of a 106-103 road loss against Charlotte. The Pelicans (30-42) outrebounded the Hornets by a 47-35 margin and outscored them 54-46 in the paint.
New Orleans G C.J. McCollum led all scorers with 27 points on 10-for-19 from the field and dished out six assists. Jonas Valanciunas contributed 24 points and 18 rebounds for the Pelicans.
