{"id":12306,"date":"2011-01-08T16:10:40","date_gmt":"2011-01-08T21:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=12306"},"modified":"2011-01-08T16:11:05","modified_gmt":"2011-01-08T21:11:05","slug":"12306","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/12306-12306\/","title":{"rendered":"Eastern Conference Rivalry: Boston Celtics At Chicago Bulls"},"content":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics AT Chicago Bulls
\nJanuary 8th, 2011 at 8:00 PM EST
\nOpening Line: Boston -2.5
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 Boston -2
\nOpening Total: 187
\nCurrent Total: 188
\nOpening Moneyline: Boston -130 \/ Chicago +110
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 Boston -120 \/ Chicago +100<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Rondo is averaging 14+ assists per game<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tonight’s game is a showdown of two of the premier teams in the Eastern Conference.\u00a0 For the Bulls, it will serve as a litmus test and measuring stick of how well they stack up against the defending Eastern Conference champion Boston Celtics.\u00a0 These two teams have history.\u00a0 In 2009, they had a classic 7 game showdown that resulted in many overtimes, kindling a rivalry that extends into tonight’s game.<\/p>\n

The Bulls have dropped both their last two games to non-contenders New Jersey and Philadelphia.\u00a0 The New Jersey game was a heartbreaker as Sasha Vujacic hit a game winning layup as time expired.\u00a0 The Philadelphia game was a bit more confusing as they gave up a season high 56.3% field goals to the Sixers, who aren’t known for their offense to say the least.\u00a0 It’s a bad sign because Boston shoots a league high 50.5% from the floor.\u00a0 The Celtics have had even better success against the Bulls in that respect, having shot 52.1% from the floor in their previous two matchups this season, both Boston victories.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s tough because we lost right now, but you know they\u2019re a hell of a team,\u201d injured Bulls center Noah after the loss on December 3rd. \u201cThat\u2019s what we\u2019re striving to be, one of the best teams in the game.\u201d<\/p>\n

Boston will again be without team leader Kevin Garnett, who suffered a knee sprain and is still expected to miss at least another week.\u00a0 They have been playing fine in his absense, as 6th man of the year candidate Glen “Big Baby” Davis has stepped up admirably, much as he did in the 08-09 playoffs in the series against Chicago and Orlando.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

Boston has won 19 of their last 22 and the total has gone UNDER in 4 of their last 6 raod games.\u00a0 They have won 8 of their last 10 on the road and the total has gone OVER in 11 of their last 15 against the Bulls.\u00a0 Boston has won 5 of the last 7 and the last 2 between the teams and the Celts are 2-4 over their last 6 in Chicago.\u00a0 Boston is also 6-2-1 ATS in their last 9 road games against the Bulls.<\/p>\n

Chicago has won 14 of their last 18 and the total has gone OVER in 4 of their last 6 at home.\u00a0 They have won all 5 of their last 5 games at home and the total has gone UNDER in 10 of their last 15\u00a0 home games.\u00a0 IT has also gone\u00a0 OVER in 11 of their last 15 against Boston.\u00a0 The Bulls are 7-13-1 ATS in their last 21 games against the Celtics and are 1-3-1 ATS\u00a0 in their last 5 home games against the Celtics.<\/p>\n

Premier Matchup of Tonight’s game:<\/p>\n

Rajon Rondo Vs. Derrick Rose<\/strong><\/p>\n

Both point guards are having phenomenal years and are in MVP discussions.\u00a0 Rose has improved every year of his three year NBA career and has emerged as one of the league’s premier\u00a0 scorers and one of the top 5 point guards in the league, and an argument could be made that he is the best one.\u00a0 Rondo is averaging an absurd 14 assists a game, but isn’t scoring quite as much as would have been expected; it hasn’t mattered though.\u00a0 He’s led the Celtics to the best record in the East and took control last year during their improbable Finals run.\u00a0 Both are quick point guards and good defenders and this should be an epic showdown between them.\u00a0 Rondo and Rose are flashy and exciting and will add a lot of highlights to what should be a rather slow paced game, for the most part.\u00a0 Boston and Chicago both hold their opponents to less than 95 a game and NBA oddsmakers have set the total at 187 opening line, which indicates that the score will be in the 90s, if normal trends apply.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Boston Celtics AT Chicago Bulls January 8th, 2011 at 8:00 PM EST Opening Line: Boston -2.5 Current Line:\u00a0 Boston -2 Opening Total: 187 Current Total: 188 Opening Moneyline: Boston -130 \/ Chicago +110 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 Boston -120 \/ Chicago +100 Tonight’s game is a showdown of two of the premier teams in the Eastern Conference.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":4384,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[120,174,521,197],"class_list":["post-12306","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-rajon-rondo"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12306","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\/40250"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12306"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12306\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12308,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12306\/revisions\/12308"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4384"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12306"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12306"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12306"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}