Streaking Thunder tangle with struggling Bulls

Oklahoma City Thunder coach Mark Daigneault has been experimenting with his late-game rotations.

His Chicago Bulls counterpart, Billy Donovan, has been tinkering with his starting lineup to try to find the right combination to help his team get off to better starts.

Daigneault's trials have worked much better than Donovan's so far.

Wednesday night, Daigneault's Thunder and Donovan's Bulls meet in Oklahoma City with the teams heading in wildly different directions.

The Thunder are surging, having won five consecutive games, including sweeping their recently completed three-game West Coast road trip.

Oklahoma City's winning streak is its largest since the 2019-20 season. They haven't won six or more consecutive games since the season before.

Four of the wins during the streak have come by 12 more or more, giving Daigneault a little more wiggle room to try new things, but he says he'll continue to work through new rotations, including in the fourth quarter.

"You could argue that predictability is a good thing but you could also argue that predictability is a bad thing," Daigneault said. "I think the readiness of always knowing that your number could get called keeps guys sharp, keeps them engaged.

"The readiness to go and do that is a skill and it's a skill that we want to develop. It's probably not easy but most things that are worthwhile aren't."

The Thunder will be without one of their key pieces Wednesday, though.

Jalen Williams, Oklahoma City's second-leading scorer, will miss his second consecutive game with a hip strain.

Rookie Cason Wallace made his second start of the season in Sunday's 134-91 victory in Portland.

While Wallace isn't asked to score much in the Thunder's offense, he's been plenty efficient on that end, shooting 62.5 percent from the floor and 54.2 percent from beyond the arc.

Donovan has used four different starting lineups already, using Alex Caruso in the starting lineup for the past three games.

It hasn't changed much for Chicago, which is averaging an NBA-worst 24.7 points in the first quarter. Oklahoma City is among the league's best in first-quarter scoring, averaging 30.9 points per game in the first.

Donovan said he would likely stick with the lineup of Caruso, Nikola Vucevic, Coby White, DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine against the Thunder.

In Monday's 118-100 loss to Miami, LaVine attempted a season-low nine shots. In Saturday's win over the Heat, LaVine attempted just 10.

Donovan said there's a balance between LaVine's unselfishness — LaVine averaged 5.5 assists in the past two games — and the aggressiveness that Donovan would like from his top scorer.

"There's really never, ever a bad shot when he shoots the basketball," Donovan said. "We need him to just, I think, be aggressive, then once he's aggressive, make the right play.

"I think there's a balance for him."

LaVine has expressed frustration recently with the way the season has gone with the Bulls having lost four of their past five.

Wednesday's game is the second and final meeting between the teams this season. Oklahoma City won the season-opening meeting with the Bulls, 124-104, on Oct. 25 in Chicago.

—Field Level Media