The Chicago Bulls look to avenge Friday’s loss, as they battle the Philadelphia 76ers at the United Center as betting underdogs.
Friday night’s finish ended in disappointment for the Chicago Bulls as they fell to the San Antonio Spurs 129-124. With Zach LaVine sidelined via load management, Demar Derozan became the 50th player in NBA history to cross the 20,000 career point mark, as he poured in a team-high 33 points.
Philly saw a different outcome on Friday night with their star also sidelined, as the 76ers took down Toronto 112-90 with Joel Embiid out of the lineup. Tyrese Maxey dropped an eye-opening 44 points in the win, hitting nine three-pointers. Both Zach LaVine and Joel Embiid should be expected to return to each lineup on Saturday night.
Friday night did have it’s silver linings, as the best bet of the day blog improved to 5-1 behind Demar Derozan’s point output! Let’s keep things on the winning track for our betslips and let’s get our Chicago Bulls following suit! Today’s play will be all or nothing for both, so strap your war helmets on because the Bulls are winning a big game tonight. Let’s see some red, and GO BULLS!!
2022 Bulls Best Bet Record: 5-1
Chicago Bulls ML (+115) (Sportsbook odds may vary)
If you have paid any attention to these Bulls-76ers matchups over the past couple of years, you may be surprised to see this pick tonight. If you have been following along with me at all, this play is all about buying into betting strategies, line pricing, and public overreactions.
The first thing to note is the public perception of this game and teams. Even if you have not paid close attention to the recent matchups between these teams, the general consensus is that Philly is a vastly superior team, and maybe on paper, or if you’re getting the best version of each team, that might be true. In tonight’s case, a line of two points or less in favor of Philly, is incredibly enticing to anybody that believes in this Philly team, or believes they are going to see a beatdown at the hands of Joel Embiid himself.
The general consensus on money splits for this game is a reflection of that public belief. At the time of writing, approximately 11:20am, DraftKings tracker shows 85% of money on Philly’s spread, and 60% of moneyline bets tilting to the 76ers as well. By no means is fading the public a strategy that can be played on every single game, but in certain spots can be very useful, especially if you can couple it with a, “why the hell is this line so short” situation.
Last night’s games for each team also piles onto the average person’s perception of these teams. Regardless of the absence of each team’s all-star player, a 76ers team beating a solid Raptors team convincingly and a Chicago Bulls team losing to a bad Spurs team, is going to fuel an even heavier recency bias, furthering the question, “why the hell is this line so short?”
The greater concern as far as individual matchups themselves is the Embiid-Nikola Vucevic battle. Over Vucevic’s time with Chicago, this matchup has been a nightmare for him, and the 76ers have found themselves in the win column because of it.
On one hand, I would argue Vucevic has looked like a more consistent and confident version of himself through the opening games, as compared to his first season and a half with the team. In addition, and potentially more importantly, the addition of Andre Drummond should prove to be immensely helpful for matchups such as this. Drummond was banged up a bit in last night’s loss, but with no current injury designation, his efforts will need to be seen tonight if the Bulls want to improve to 4-3.
To close things out, until last night’s outburst from Tyrese Maxey, this 76ers offense has been incredibly inconsistent, ranking 25th in points per game. This Chicago Bulls defense has of course shown its’ issues, but an out of sorts offense may be exactly what they need to finally take down this Philly squad.
Give me the Bulls outright tonight with a balanced scoring attack from start to finish. See Red, and GO BULLS!!
For More Great Chicago Sports Content
Follow us on Twitter at @chicitysports23 for more great content. We appreciate you taking time to read our articles. To interact more with our community and keep up to date on the latest in Chicago sports news, JOIN OUR FREE FACEBOOK GROUP by CLICKING HERE
