NBA - 701 Oklahoma City Thunder @ 702 Chicago Bulls
Projected Line: 187 points
Even though Chicago is 3-1 right now, they are yet to face a top team this season. They faced Sacramento, Cleveland, New Orleans and Orlando, four teams that won't be on the playoffs this season. Even with this easy schedule, Chicago has struggled to be consistent on offense, especially when they face teams with a powerful frontcourt that are able to limit Carlos Boozer. Even against an undersized team of the Magic, Chicago couldn't have a proper ball movement to pound Orlando down low and they finished the game with just 34 points in the paint and shooting 14-23 FG at the rim. In fact, the team needed a red hot Nate Robinson to spark the offense down the stretch on the 4th quarter and as a team, they took a ton of outside shots! It's nice to shoot 18-36 FG from 16-23 feet like they did against Orlando, but it's very tough for them to be consistent from this range and in fact, on their previous game against the Hornets, they had shot just 5-22 FG from this area.
Oklahoma City has just had one poor defensive game against Atlanta, but they clearly overlooked the Hawks, who were playing without Josh Smith. The Thunder have been allowing their opponents to have the following offensive rates this season: 96.28, 95.30, 119.31 and 88.14. If we exclude the game against Atlanta, they have been great on defense! Oklahoma City have a frontcourt with Serge Ibaka and Kendrick Perkins, who are able to physically hang with Chicago's frontcourt. Meanwhile, Luol Deng is one of the best defensive Small Forwards of the league and so, Kevin Durant won't have an easy task tonight.
In contrast to their offensive problems, Chicago has probably the best defense in the league. They keep struggling a bit in stopping the opposing guards from penetrating into the basket because Richard Hamilton, Marco Belinelli and Nate Robinson aren't good individual defenders, however their team help defense provided by the frontcourt players is phenomenal! The result of that has been the interior players having to step up and often out of position in order to rebound. The Bulls have made up for it with terrific hustle, especially from Joakim Noah, Taj Gibson and Luol Deng. Oklahoma City is still looking for a new offensive identity without James Harden in terms of ball handling. That's why they have committed 18, 12, 21 and 19 turnovers on their first four games of the season!
Russell Westbrook is banged up with a shoulder injury and Kirk Hinrich is also a good defensive player and therefore, both defenses will have a good edge tonight over both offenses. I expect a half court game in here, where every single shot will be contested. Therefore, I'll be taking the Under in here.
Pick: 3 units (Single Dime Play) on 701/702 Under 190.5 @ -110 / 1.91 on Bookmaker
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