NBA Betting Preview: Chicago Bulls at Milwaukee Bucks

Added on Feb 26, 2011 by Jack Thurman in

NBA

Plenty of basketball action on Saturday both in college and pro hoops–in this post we’ll look at a NBA Central Division matchup between the Chicago Bulls and Milwaukee Bucks. Even with all their success this year the Bulls may be the most underrated team in the NBA due to all of the hype surrounding Miami, Boston and New York. They’re running away with the Central Division leading second place Indiana by 13.5 games. Milwaukee has been a disappointment this season after their strong showing last year–they’ve still got a good defense but struggle to put points on the board.

Chicago Bulls at Milwaukee Bucks
February 26, 2011 5:35 PM Pacific

Hard to complain about anything the Chicago Bulls are doing at the moment–they just got Joachim Noah back in the lineup, have won 7 of their last 10 games and are coming off a home victory over the Miami Heat. In theory, that could make this a ‘letdown spot’ but the Bulls have been somewhat immune to those this year–coming off an upset outright win as an underdog Chicago is 5-1 ATS this year. They’ve made mincemeat of the Central Division not only in the standings but in head to head play–they’re 11-0 SU in divisional play going 7-4 ATS. They’ve got a profitable ATS profile in most categories, which isn’t surprising for a team that is 33-22 ATS overall.

We loved using the Milwaukee Bucks last year but this season they’ve been a disappointment both SU and ATS. They still play team defense as well as any team in the league–they’re currently #4 in scoring defense behind Chicago, New Orleans and Boston. The problem is that they’re dead last in team offense, scoring only 91.7 PPG. Chicago isn’t a high scoring team either–they’re #18 in scoring defense–but they’ve got several ‘go to’ scoring options including Derrick Rose and Carlos Boozer to go along with their nasty defense. The Bucks really rely on Brandon Jennings to generate their offense but he’s only recently returned from injury. Andrew Bogut is still one of the best defensive big men in the game (11.4 rebounds per game, 2.9 blocks per game) but his scoring has stagnated.

Milwaukee can hang with the Bulls on defense, but Chicago has a huge edge offensively. The Bucks have been kicked around in the Central this season–3-6 SU/2-6-1 ATS–and given the success Chicago has had against divisional rivals can’t see that changing here. Bulls have also gone Under in 9 of 11 divisional games and even with this low total our score projections show a nice overlay.

Bet Chicago Bulls -3′ over Milwaukee Bucks
Bet Chicago/Milwaukee Under 182