Cavs open 6-game road trip at Bulls

The Cleveland Cavaliers will go for their third straight win when they visit the Chicago Bulls on Tuesday night.

The meeting will open a six-game road trip for Cleveland, which is coming off back-to-back victories against the Denver Nuggets and San Antonio Spurs. The Cavaliers are 5-5 and playing much more cohesively under head coach J.B. Bickerstaff after stumbling to a 14-40 mark under John Beilein.

The most recent victory, a 132-129 overtime win against the Spurs, gave Cleveland its 19th win -- matching its total from a season ago.

"We're just going to keep pushing for 20, keep pushing for 25," Cavaliers forward Larry Nance Jr. told reporters. "Who knows where this ... I don't even know how many games we have left, but we're going to try to get 'em all."

The next challenge comes against Chicago, which is looking to end a three-game losing streak. Each of those losses were fairly close as the Bulls fell by seven points against the Minnesota Timberwolves on Wednesday night, by six against the Indiana Pacers on Friday night and by three against the Brooklyn Nets on Sunday afternoon.

The injury absence of top scorer Zach LaVine has been problematic for the Bulls. LaVine has missed the past four games with a quadriceps injury and is expected to be unavailable for a fifth straight game against the Cavaliers.

In 60 games this season, LaVine is averaging 25.5 points per game to go along with 4.8 rebounds and 4.2 assists.

Bulls head coach Jim Boylen hinted he might lean more heavily on younger players with the postseason likely out of reach. One option for Boylen could be to move reigning first-round draft pick Coby White into the starting lineup.

Boylen said he would discuss options with Bulls vice president of basketball operations John Paxson.

"We'll kind of sit down, and we've talked about winning and developing, and there may be a moment where we turn into pure development mode," Boylen told reporters. "That's what you do. To me, if that's what is best for the franchise, that's what helps us to continue to grow and get better, I'm sure we'll do that."

Without LaVine, the Bulls' top scoring option is Lauri Markkanen, who's averaging 14.7 points and 6.3 rebounds in 49 games. White is third on the scoring list with an average of 13.1 points in 64 games, all off the bench.

Cleveland's top scorer is Collin Sexton, who is averaging 20.7 points on 46.8 percent shooting. Veteran power forward Kevin Love is averaging close to a double-double with 17.6 points and 9.8 rebounds.

Chicago holds a 2-1 series edge over Cleveland heading into the fourth and final meeting of the season. The teams split a pair of games in Cleveland, and the Bulls won the Jan. 18 meeting on their home court.

Chicago is 13-20 at home and Cleveland is 8-20 on the road.

--Field Level Media