Charlotte Bobcats at Chicago Bulls Betting Odds


Opening Line: Bobcats +2.5 / Bulls -2.5 O/U 187

Time: 8 PM EST Saturday April 3, 2010 on NBA TV

Tonight in an important Eastern Conference match up in the Windy City the Chicago Bulls face the Charlotte Bobcats. The Bulls are 4 games behind Charlotte in the East, but they only trail 8th place Toronto by 1.5 games for the 8th and final playoff spot. The Bulls have won 8 of their last 10 games against the Bobcats at home including the last 2.

The Bulls are coming off a win and are 5-5 in their last 10 games, but have won 5 of their last 7, and the Bobcats have won 2 in a row and are 6-4 in their last 10 games.

This season the Bulls are 21-16 at home and 37-35-2 ATS and the Bobcats are 11-26 on the road and 42-31-1 ATS.

In their last games the Bobcats beat the Milwaukee Bucks 87-86 last night in OT and the Bulls beat the lowly Washington Wizards 95-87 also last night.

The Bulls are banged up, as Kirk Hinrich, rookie James Johnson, Derrick Rose, and Joakim Noah are all nursing injuries and will play tonight. Getting Noah back from a foot injury is coming just at the right time, as the Bulls will need his rebounding in this game.

Neither of these teams will light up the scoreboard, as Chicago ranks 23rd in the league in scoring and Charlotte ranks 28th, but each has a solid team on defense. In terms of opponents' points allowed this season the Bobcats have the best defensive team in the league only allowing 93.6 ppg.

Unless Charlotte implodes they should make their first post-season berth, but they will open the playoffs on the road where they are 15 games under .500 this season.

The Bobcats will need to have good scoring games from Gerald Wallace (18.4 ppg) and Stephen Jackson (20.9 ppg) tonight. Jackson is averaging 23.7 ppg in his last 6 games against the Bulls, but Wallace only had 12 points in his last game in Chicago and he only scored 5 last night.

Neither team has much of an inside presence, but each team is decent on the boards. The team that can win the rebounding battle has a good chance to win this game.

The Bobcats have to play good D against Joakim Noah (10.3 ppg 10.6 rpg) and Derrick Rose (20.3 ppg), as this duo torched them in their last game in Chicago. In that game Noah had 21` points and 16 boards and Rose had 24 points and 9 assists in the 113-108 win.

Betting Trends

Charlotte is 6-2-1 ATS in their last 9 games, 4-1-1 ATS in their last 6 road games, 4-0-1 ATS in their last 5 games as an underdog, and has an Under record of 5-0 in their last 5 games.

Chicago is 8-2 ATS in their last 10 games, 6-2 ATS in their last 8 home games against teams with a losing road record, and has an Under record of 6-2 in their last 8 games.

Charlotte is 5-1 ATS in their last 6 games against Chicago.

Our Selection : Take Under 187 points.


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