Milwaukee Bucks remain atop NBA Power Rankings by taking care of business

Last week: Lost to Milwaukee 123-102, lost to Utah 102-98, lost to Boston 111-104

This week: Monday at Dallas, Wednesday at New Orleans, Friday vs. Indiana, Saturday at Detroit

The good news for the Chicago Bulls is that their longest losing streak of the season is just three games. The bad news for the Bulls is that they have already had five of those three-game losing streaks within the first 36 games of the season. Chicago has also lost three in a row at home, its worst stretch since dropping six straight at United Center from Nov. 1-25.

The Bulls have a fairly respectable 6-10 road record, but their 7-13 mark at home is dragging them down in the Eastern Conference’s slog for what appears to be the final two playoff berths, considering six teams in the East are playing better than .600 basketball and the other nine are below .500.

Zach LaVine shook off a mini-slump on Saturday, scoring 35 points on 11-of-21 shooting in the loss to the Celtics. For the week, LaVine averaged 26.7 points, 4.3 assists, 3.3 rebounds and 1.7 steals in 36.4 minutes per game, but shot only 38.6 percent overall while knocking down 41.4 percent on 9.7 3-point attempts a night.

Last week: Lost to Phoenix 122-116, lost at New York 117-93, won at Washington 122-103

This week: Sunday at Miami, Tuesday at Toronto, Thursday at Minnesota, Saturday vs. Milwaukee

The Portland Trail Blazers started a five-game road trip in the worst way possible, by getting blown out at New York on New Year’s Day, but recovered for a blowout of their own at Washington on Saturday night to salvage something from the week, as well as end a losing streak that had extended to five games.

So everything Portland had made up with their four-game winning streak from Dec. 16-21 has been undone, plus one. And yet the Blazers are still in the thick of a very, very slow-paced race for eighth place in the Western Conference, now in eighth place, percentage points ahead of the San Antonio Spurs, but with seven teams within three games of that position.

Hassan Whiteside had one of those stretches he’s capable of, where he just sort of goes bananas. He averaged 18.7 points, 18.3 rebounds and 3.7 blocks in 34.4 minutes per game, shooting 52.5 percent overall and even going 14-for-17 clip (82.4 percent) at the line — not bad for a career 60.8 percent shooter. He had two 20/20 games, including 23 points and 21 boards at Washington.