The Chicago Bulls play host to the Toronto Raptors at United Center on Wednesday.

The Raptors (23-22) come into this matchup losing five of their last eight games but grabbed a win over the Charlotte Hornets in their most recent outing on Tuesday. Pascal Siakam had another 12 assists in that gem, and he's quietly been one of the best players in the NBA for a month now. They also got that win with Scottie Barnes and Fred VanVleet sitting, with both guys dealing with minor ailments. It is possible that those two were rested in the front end of a back-to-back to have them ready for this critical matchup with the Bulls. In any case, Toronto is battling, but they can't seem to get out of this .500 lull they've been stuck in all season.

The Bulls (29-17) come into this matchup losing six of their last eight games, and the win on Monday was far from pretty. Chicago played a terrible Oklahoma City team and got out to a 28-point third-quarter lead but ended up winning by just one point. Reeling efforts like that show where this team is at right now, suffering numerous injuries in this poor stretch. Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso are the ones that remain out, with Zach LaVine returning in that most recent victory. That means that Chicago is in the market for another guard, but it's hard to overlook how good Coby White and Ayo Doosunmu have been filling in. Those youngsters are great ancillary pieces to LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, giving them the third-best record in the east.

These teams played back on October 25, with Chicago prevailing, 111-108. With that said, the Bulls swept the three-game season series last year. That actually followed up an 11-game winning streak by Toronto prior to that.