NBA - 705 Chicago Bulls @ 706 Minnesota Timberwolves
Projected Line: Minnesota by 6 points
Chicago is coming from a tough but very important home win over Indiana last night, where they played without Derrick Rose and Rip Hamilton (as usual), but also without Joakim Noah, who is struggling once again with his plantar fasciitis. To make things worse for the Bulls, Nate Robinson was ejected almost at the end of the third quarter, Daequan Cook also got injured in the fourth quarter, while Kirk Hinrich keeps struggling with his knee injury and it even looks like that he re-aggravated his injury last night. Therefore, the spot for the Bulls tonight isn't enough even though none of their players were on the court for over 40 minutes last night. However, the game was very physical, so the required effort of the Bulls's players last night was still considerable.
Matchup wise, the Wolves can be also a tough matchup for Chicago. Minnesota's offense is based on pick and rolls, spot ups and transitions. Chicago's transition defense is terrible and it won't get any better soon, with Nazr Mohammed on the starting lineup due to Joakim Noah's injury. Besides that, the Bulls haven't been good on pick and roll ball handler defense this season. That's not a big surprise considering Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli are playing major minutes together on the backcourt. They are #16 in the league with 0.79 PPP allowed for the season, but their numbers have gotten worse lately with 0.91 PPP allowed since the All Star break! Therefore, Minnesota will have two very interesting edges on offense tonight. On the other side, Chicago's offense will have an edge on offensive boards, as Minnesota isn't a good defensive rebounding team, while Carlos Boozer will also have a decent game tonight. However, that doesn't seem to be enough for the Bulls to be competitive tonight on a poor spot and with so many absences/banged up players right now. Minnesota is playing quite well lately and they are currently quite healthy for the massive amount of injuries that they've had this season. They have nice spot and matchup edges tonight and so, I'll be taking them in here tonight.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 706 Minnesota Timberwolves (-3) @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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