The Chicago Bulls travel to Texas to face the San Antonio Spurs at AT&T Center on Friday.

The Bulls (30-17) pulled out narrow wins in their two most recent games, snapping a stretch where they lost six of seven before that. The direct correlation with the bump in production is getting Zach LaVine back in the lineup. He missed all of that poor seven-game stretch and returned when this mini two-game winning streak started. That means they have the best record in the Eastern Conference when LaVine is in the lineup, sitting third for the whole season. That alone is a shocking number, and it's a testament to how well LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic have gelled together in such a short period of time. That's one of the best trios around, and it makes this one of the scariest teams in the NBA.

The Spurs (18-31) suffered another tough loss on Tuesday against the Memphis Grizzlies, marking their 13th loss in their last 17 games. That's a horrific stretch from such a talented team, and it's hard to understand why they can't get any wins. They compete night after night, but they just can't get the buckets late when they matter most. It's certainly not the fault of Dejounte Murray, though, with the versatile point guard flirting with triple-double averages. They've also discovered a gem in Jakob Poeltl as well, and it looks like a great one-two punch for the future. In any case, looking towards the future looks like the next plan for this organization because this hole is becoming too deep to dig out of.

These teams played twice last season, with San Antonio sweeping the season series. That gives San Antonio six wins in their last eight meetings with Chicago, dating back to 2016.