The Chicago Bulls head to Boston looking to improve to 6-4, as they face the Celtics as betting underdogs.
The Chicago Bulls head east for a rematch of last Monday’s game that saw the Bulls take a 120-102 victory over the Boston Celtics. The Bulls led a balanced scoring attack in that game, with Demar Derozan, Nikola Vucevic, Zach LaVine and Ayo Dosunmu all finishing with at least 18 points.
Vucevic and Andre Drummond combined for 35 rebounds in that October meeting, falling 10 rebounds short of the entire Boston lineup in that game. Andre Drummond has been listed as out for this game as he nurses a shoulder injury.
The best bet of the day took a hit on Wednesday, as Vucevic’s 12 first half points were met with only two second half points to keep us under his point total. At 6-3 on the season, we are looking for a prime bounce back spot to get us to 7-3 heading into the weekend, and with any luck we’ll have a Bulls victory to go along with it. Best of luck tonight and this weekend, and GO BULLS!!
2022 Bulls Best Bet Record: 6-3
Game Total Under 223.5 (Sportsbook odds may vary)
This will be the first time this season that we are taking a crack at the game total for tonight’s matchup, and for a number of reasons, I strongly believe the under is the play to make out of this game.
This will be the second time in less than two weeks that these teams are squaring off, with the first seeing a 120-102 victory for our Chicago Bulls at the United Center.
I am honestly unsure what to expect as far the spread, as well as the offensive output from the Celtics tonight, but I do feel strongly about a Celtics team that hangs their hat on solid defensive play, showing up and keeping this a lower scoring affair, especially with the first game looming in recent memory.
That isn’t to suggest that the Bulls can’t have similar success defensively, but a Boston team that is 1-3 over their last four games with two tough overtime losses to the Cavs mixed in, this defense at home is going to be looking for a huge showing.
I haven’t brought many trends to these blogs yet this season, but with game totals in the NBA, there are some trends that I like to mention that can sometimes be a decent indication of what to expect.
In the case of the Chicago Bulls, and these often date back to previous seasons, they are 5-1 to the under in their last six games playing on one day of rest and are 11-4 to the under over their last 15 games following a straight up win. Boston boasts 4-0 to the under when playing on one day of rest, and over their last 13 games allowing more than 100 points, they are 9-4 to the under in the following game.
Statistically, the Celtics have not quite been the team that we saw go to the NBA Finals last season, but in my opinion, things are going to start returning to form soon. Through seven games, the Celtics rank 20th in defensive efficiency, yet stand at 11th in effective field goal percentage allowed. The schedule that Boston has faced has been incredibly tough to open the season, and had the overtime games against Cleveland gone differently, this team would be getting quite a bit more respect.
In the intro I mentioned the impact that Vucevic and Drummond made for the Chicago Bulls in the first meeting between these two teams. While Vucevic can certainly still make a great impact today, the Celtics who have been without their big man Robert Williams, will be pleased to see Drummond out of tonight’s rotation. Vucevic pulled down 10 offensive rebounds in that first matchup, but I’d be willing to bet that they have an adjusted game plan this time around and will obviously have different looks when Vooch is sitting on the bench.
To close things out, the Bulls are going to need to bring some defense of their own tonight if they are going to hang with this Boston team. The Celtics are going to be very hungry to get into the win column and enact some revenge on this Bulls team, and in doing so will most likely bring a stingy defensive effort. Let’s get a nasty win to get this Bulls win streak to three, why don’t we?
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