NBA - 503 Chicago Bulls @ 504 Los Angeles Clippers
Projected Line: 186 points
***DOUBLE DIME PLAY***
This is an interesting matchup, but I'm sure that coach Tom Thibodeau will have a nice gameplan to stop the Clippers offense tonight and turn this game into a halfcourt battle, on a kind of game where Chicago will have more chances of winning. The Clippers have been playing an uptempo pace this season, while scoring a good number of fast break points, but Chicago is #7 on the league on fast break points allowed per game with 12.4 ppg. With Kirk Hinrich back from injury, Chicago is back at being a good pick and roll ball handler defense and with the Bulls being also a top defensive team in avoiding free throws (#3 in FT rate), this will make the Clippers struggle on half court against the Bulls defense.
After a poor start of the season, the Clippers defense has been improving nicely, with a 89.69, 101.68, 86.96 and 106.55 defensive rating on their last four games. Miami looked like world beaters during the first half of their game against the Clippers, while scoring 54 points, but the Clippers made a strong defensive performance in the 2nd half with just 46 points allowed, with the key being in the third quarter, where Miami scored just 20 points! Chicago is coming from a nice offensive game on their last game against Phoenix, where Carlos Boozer looked to be back at his All Star days. He scored 28 points while shooting 11-20 FG and committing just one turnover. Joakim Noah was also dominant on a 9-19 FG shooting night, while dishing 5 assists. But these good performances were mostly due to the Suns awful frontcourt defense that lacks any kind of toughness and this is why the Bulls shot 68.8% FG at the rim in that game. In fact, this is why we took the Bulls on that game. But as soon as the Suns showed some kind of effort on defense during the 4th quarter, Chicago didn't know what to do on offense and this is where they really miss Derrick Rose. The Bulls scored just 17 points during that fourth quarter and they will also struggle in scoring today against a very aggressive Clippers frontcourt.
On a half court game scenario and with both teams defending quite well, the current line of 194 points is just too high. Therefore, I'll be taking the Under in here in a Double Dime Play!
Pick: 4 units (Double Dime Play) on 503/504 Under 194 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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