NBA Betting Picks: Miami Heat at Chicago Bulls

Added on Feb 24, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

Sports betting enthusiasts will have only a pair of NBA games on the Thursday night board but one of them is a great matchup between Eastern Conference heavyweights Chicago and Miami. The Bulls are running away with their division, but are only 3 games back of Boston and Miami for the Eastern Conference lead.

Miami Heat at Chicago Bulls
February 24, 2011

The Heat had no trouble with the Sacramento Kings in their return to action after the All Star game and now will face their first “real” opponent as they head to the United Center to take on the Chicago Bulls. Bulls played Toronto last night and will be coming in off a loss. Chicago will be glad to have Joakim Noah back in the lineup for this contest–Noah made his return after missing 30 games on Wednesday scoring 7 points and pulling down 16 boards in 25 minutes against Toronto. The plan is to work him back into his usual 36 minutes per game gradually, but don’t be surprised if that plan changes if he’s playing effectively here. The Heat will be without guard Mike Miller who didn’t make the trip as he recovers from an inner ear infection.

Miami has been a decent ATS investment on the road (18-10 ATS) but the Bulls have been dominant at home with an Eastern Conference best 25-4 SU record going 18-10 against the spread. Heat overall have just been a breakeven proposition against the spread at 28-27. Bulls are now a perfect 3-0 SU/ATS as a home dog of +3 or less and have been very strong in this role for several years going 11-3 ATS since 2008. They’re 9-4 ATS as an underdog overall and a solid 14-6 ATS against opponents with winning records. Despite Miami picking up some high profile wins against opponents over .500 the Heat are just 10-10 ATS on the year against opponents with winning records. Bulls won 99-96 as -3 home favorites on January and with Noah back in the lineup its hard to see what’s happened since then to produce 5.5 swing in the pointspread toward Miami. We’ll look for the Bulls to put up a very strong effort against the NBA’s most hated ‘heels’ on national TV and pick up the victory.

Bet Chicago Bulls +2′ over Miami Heat