NBA - 509 Boston Celtics @ 510 Chicago Bulls
Projected Line: Boston by 3 points
This isn't a good spot for Chicago, as they will play their third game in four nights, after having played at Memphis last night. On the other hand, Boston had two nights off to prepare for this game, so they have a spot edge for tonight. Once again, Chicago's starters were heavily used last night, with Carlos Boozer playing 34 minutes, Luol Deng 39 minutes, Joakim Noah 42 minutes, Kirk Hinrich 31 minutes and Marco Belinelli 40 minutes.
On the other side, Boston is coming from two losses in a row, as after they defeated Dallas at home on double overtime, they couldn't keep up with Houston's fast pace in the following and then, on a back to back game at San Antonio, they simply got ran over by the Spurs in the second half.
"When teams are out of shape physically, having them run more usually does the trick. But mental fatigue? That's a tricky one, for sure. You work on habits, you have to improve your habits," Doc Rivers said. "We see it on film. We'll do it. And then we never sustain it." Said Brandon Bass: "We know what we need to do. We just need to keep on doing it for longer stretches, that's all."
As Boston had two days off to prepare this game, I expect them to have more energy tonight. Just like it happened on the previous game between these two teams, Rajon Rondo has a mismatch against the Bulls guards, especially on pick and rolls, where the Bulls are just an average team. With Rondo having an individual edge, he is able to give a whole new dimension to the Celtics overall offense.
Chicago's offense will have once again a lot of moments with complete stagnation because of lack of ball movement, also motivated by their poor physical spot for tonight. One of the problems that the Celtics have on defense is to defend the dribble penetrations from the opposing guards, but with Derrick Rose out, the Bulls won't be able to explore that. Therefore, I expect the Celtics defense to shutdown the Bulls offense in here.
With the edge that Boston will have on offense due to Rajon Rondo's matchup and with the good defensive job they'll do tonight against a stagnant Bulls offense, I expect Boston to beat Chicago tonight and so, I'll be taking the Celtics in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 509 Boston Celtics (+1,5) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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