{"id":10292,"date":"2010-11-05T07:30:51","date_gmt":"2010-11-05T12:30:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=10292"},"modified":"2010-11-05T07:44:52","modified_gmt":"2010-11-05T12:44:52","slug":"nba-betting-preview-chicago-bulls-at-boston-celtics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-betting-preview-chicago-bulls-at-boston-celtics-10292\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Betting Preview: Chicago Bulls at Boston Celtics"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bulls at Boston Celtics
\nFriday, 11\/5\/10, 8:00 PM EST; TV:\u00a0 ESPN
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -7
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -8
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 193.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 194<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Boston Celtics PG Rajon Rondo is enjoying a special start to the 2010-11 NBA season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chicago fell 120-112 at home last night to the New York Knicks and had most of its starters on the bench down the stretch in preparation for tonight\u2019s game.\u00a0 Bulls first-year head coach Tom Thibodeau will now return to face the team he served as an assistant coach for in Friday night\u2019s Eastern Conference showdown.\u00a0 \u201cThibs brings a passion for defense, I think,\u201d Celtics forward Kevin Garnett stated.\u00a0 \u201cWhen you think of his strengths, he\u2019s obviously a defensive guy.\u201d\u00a0 The Bulls will certainly need to do a better job of defending the perimeter tonight to have a chance after allowing the Knicks to knock down 16 of 24 shots from three-point range.\u00a0 Chicago fell behind by 21 points in this contest in the first half due to being outscored 36-22 in the second quarter.\u00a0 The team is 19-22 ATS versus the Atlantic Division and are currently listed on the NBA lines page as an eight-point underdog.<\/p>\n

The Bulls are relying heavily on point guard Derrick Rose to produce on a nightly basis and he will be matched up with arguably the premiere assist man in the NBA.\u00a0 Rose and Rajon Rondo have developed a quiet rivalry in the last few years and both players were on the U.S. national team preparing for the FIBA World Championships, but Rondo was dropped from the squad, while Rose became the starting point guard.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s doing exactly what the team needs him to do,\u201d said Rose of Rondo.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s hard when somebody doesn\u2019t have to score and they still can control the game.\u201d\u00a0 Chicago carries a two-game winning streak in the series, winning in Boston last January and at home late in the season with a playoff spot on the line.<\/p>\n

Boston was able to grind out a 105-102 overtime victory at home against the Milwaukee Bucks last time out and Rondo dished out 15 assists.\u00a0 He had already broken an NBA record with 65 assists in his first four games and now has 82 on the season.\u00a0 \u201cI played with Steph Marbury, I played with Terrell Brandon, I played with Sam Cassell,\u201d said Garnett.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve never played with an all-around point guard who can play defense, set the tone offensively and defensively.\u201d\u00a0 The Celtics split the season series 2-2 versus the Bulls and have a 61-32 all-time record against the Bulls at home.\u00a0 Boston is 46-58 ATS at home over the last three campaigns.<\/p>\n

The Celtics are led offensively by forward Paul Pierce and he is coming off a 28-point performance against the Bucks.\u00a0 During last season\u2019s series, Pierce averaged a team-high 21.0 points and shot 50 percent from beyond the arc against the Bulls.\u00a0 Boston is missing center Shaquille O\u2019Neal due to a bruised right knee, which has opened up playing time to Semih Erden.\u00a0 \u201cHe knows how to play,\u201d said head coach Doc Rivers.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s just trying to learn how to play our way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bettors will definitely be analyzing the Bulls 11-1 ATS mark following a straight-up loss, while the Celtics are 7-0 ATS after allowing 100 points or more in their previous game.<\/p>\n

Maddux Sports is enjoying a 12-1 NBA run and has a full board of games to shoot at on Friday night.\u00a0 There\u2019s no better time to get NBA expert picks than today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bulls at Boston Celtics Friday, 11\/5\/10, 8:00 PM EST; TV:\u00a0 ESPN Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Boston -7 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Boston -8 Opening Total:\u00a0 193.5 Current Total:\u00a0 194 Chicago fell 120-112 at home last night to the New York Knicks and had most of its starters on the bench down the stretch in preparation for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":4387,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,174,521,3686,764,846,197,3706],"class_list":["post-10292","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-boston-celtics","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-derrick-rose","tag-doc-rivers","tag-kevin-garnett","tag-paul-pierce","tag-rajon-rondo","tag-tom-thibodeau"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10292","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10292"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10292\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10293,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10292\/revisions\/10293"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10292"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10292"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10292"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}