Portland Trail Blazers vs Chicago Bulls

The key is getting to 100. The Portland Trail Blazers were regularly heading north of the 100 point mark during their solid start to the season, but they had fallen off that pace and were held under 100 points in five straight games, losing two of the last three of those games before recovering with a 108-94 home win over the Minnesota Timberwolves. They will try for two straight against the reeling Chicago Bulls from the Rose Garden.

The Trail Blazers (10-5) were able to get to the century mark via hot shooting from three point land. After a game in which they went 4 for 19 from beyond the arc in a 108-94 road loss to the Golden State, the Trail Blazers was a more stat friendly 10 of 24 in their win on Saturday night.

Threes will be on the minds of their opponents on Monday night. Portland hit on 46.2 percent of their threes with a pair of victories over Chicago (6-6) last year, including nailed seven of them at the Rose Garden last year in a 116-74 destruction on November 19 of last year.

With that in mind that is not the type of news the Bulls are looking for as they have had some defensive issues on the first couple games of their road trip, being routed 112-93 by the Denver Nuggets on Saturday, blowing a 14-point lead, and losing to the Los Angeles Lakers 108-93 on Thursday. Those two games are just part of the last 10 games in which the Bulls have surrendered 100 or more points. Chicago has now lost four of their last six.

While Portland lives or dies by the three pointers, Chicago usually dies. They are a league-worst 26.2 percent from beyond the arch, including a putrid 2 for 11 in their loss to Denver.

The Bulls have lost four straight to the Portland Trail Blazers and have not won in Portland since March 2005.