{"id":11295,"date":"2010-12-06T09:32:21","date_gmt":"2010-12-06T14:32:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=11295"},"modified":"2010-12-06T09:32:21","modified_gmt":"2010-12-06T14:32:21","slug":"pro-basketball-handicapping-oklahoma-city-thunder-at-chicago-bulls-predictions","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/pro-basketball-handicapping-oklahoma-city-thunder-at-chicago-bulls-predictions-11295\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Basketball Handicapping: Oklahoma City Thunder at Chicago Bulls Predictions"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma City Thunder at Chicago Bulls
\nMonday, 12\/6\/10, 8:00 PM EDT
\n<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Chicago Bulls PG Derrick Rose scored 28 points in the season-opening 106-95 loss in Oklahoma City<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Oklahoma City will meet Chicago for the final time this year and is coming off a 114-109 home win over Golden State.\u00a0 The Thunder welcomed back All-Star Kevin Durant to the lineup after missing two games with a knee injury, as he scored 28 points.\u00a0 \u201cI think we started the fourth quarter off kind of bad – a couple turnovers and easy baskets for them,\u201d Durant commented.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019ve got to do a better job if we\u2019re up by a lot, not be too relaxed.\u201d\u00a0 The team has posted a 7-2 overall mark against the Eastern Conference and is 5-1 on the road in such games.\u00a0 Oklahoma City has compiled a 6-1 record in games immediately following a loss this season.\u00a0 The squad is 4-0 ATS when playing on back-to-back days and bettors can monitor the action on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

The Thunder snapped a dubious streak against the Warriors, winning for the first time this season on a Sunday, going 0-4 on the first day of the week, including 0-3 at home.\u00a0 \u201cComing back after a loss is always good to play with energy that it takes in this league,\u201d coach Scott Brooks said. Sunday\u2019s contest also matched up two of the higher scoring duos in the league, with Golden State\u2019s Monta Ellis and Stephen Curry outscoring Durant and Russell Westbrook, 68-47, but the Thunder picked up the most important number in the win column.<\/p>\n

Chicago is coming off an emotional 119-116 overtime victory at home that saw leading scorer Derrick Rose score 30 points and adding 11 assists.\u00a0 He comes into tonight\u2019s game trailing only Durant and Kobe Bryant respectively in scoring average.\u00a0 Rose scored 28 points in the season-opening 106-95 loss at Oklahoma City.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s our guy,\u201d said forward Carlos Boozer.\u00a0 \u201cWhen we need buckets, we\u2019re going to go to him.\u00a0 He\u2019s always going to make something happen.\u201d\u00a0 Chicago has posted a 10-8 ATS mark in all games and is currently 3-5 ATS at the United Center.<\/p>\n

The Bulls are a solid 8-4 overall against the Western Conference and a perfect 4-0 against such opponents.\u00a0 Chicago has dropped two straight games at home against the Thunder, including a 98-85 defeat on January 4, with Westbrook leading the way for Oklahoma City with 29 points, seven rebounds and six assists, while Durant posted 25 points.\u00a0 Forward Carlos Boozer will be playing in the series for the first time, as he scored 25 points and grabbed nine rebounds in his third game back this season versus Houston.\u00a0 He\u2019s scored 20 or more points in seven of his last 10 games against tonight\u2019s opponent.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in playing the Thunder due to their 22-9 ATS mark on the road versus winning home teams, while the Bulls are 35-17-3 ATS versus the Western Conference.<\/p>\n

The NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports are gearing up for another exciting week and can\u2019t wait for you to join them today!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma City Thunder at Chicago Bulls Monday, 12\/6\/10, 8:00 PM EDT Oklahoma City will meet Chicago for the final time this year and is coming off a 114-109 home win over Golden State.\u00a0 The Thunder welcomed back All-Star Kevin Durant to the lineup after missing two games with a knee injury, as he scored 28 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":9329,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[2067,174,521,3622,1193,399,3298,3674,3693],"class_list":["post-11295","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-carlos-boozer","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-derrick-rose","tag-eastern-conference","tag-kevin-durant","tag-oklahoma-city-thunder","tag-russell-westbrook","tag-united-center","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11295","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=11295"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11295\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11296,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11295\/revisions\/11296"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9329"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11295"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11295"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11295"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}