{"id":13175,"date":"2011-02-07T14:29:00","date_gmt":"2011-02-07T19:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13175"},"modified":"2011-02-07T14:29:00","modified_gmt":"2011-02-07T19:29:00","slug":"nba-handicapping-preview-chicago-bulls-at-portland-trail-blazers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-handicapping-preview-chicago-bulls-at-portland-trail-blazers-13175\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Handicapping Preview: Chicago Bulls at Portland Trail Blazers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bulls at Portland Trail Blazers
\nMonday, 2\/7\/11, 10:00 PM EDT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Chicago -1.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Chicago -2
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 183
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 181.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Rose is having a phenomenal year<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chicago had its six-game winning streak snapped by dropping a 101-90 contest at Golden State and has recorded a 2-10 mark when allowing 100 or more points this season.\u00a0 The Bulls will need to do a much better job on the defensive end tonight in order to get back on track when facing a team that has averaged 112.7 points during its three-game home winning streak in the series.\u00a0 Point guard Derrick Rose continues to be the squad\u2019s catalyst on the offensive end, but managed to score just 14 points in the latest contest, his fewest since scoring a season-low on December 15.\u00a0 \u201cI couldn\u2019t get a feel for the game because they didn\u2019t let me,\u201d said Rose.\u00a0 \u201cI couldn\u2019t get to the hole.\u00a0 It was hard but I\u2019ll figure it out.\u201d\u00a0 The team is 34-15 overall on the season, but just an even 11-11 away from the United Center.\u00a0 Chicago is 12-10 ATS on the road and currently favored on the NBA lines page tonight.<\/p>\n

The Bulls are one of four teams int he NBA this year that has not lost more than two games in a row.\u00a0 Chicago\u2019s defense has been brilliant over the last nine games, allowing opponents to average just 86.0 points a contest on .409 shooting.\u00a0 One of the main reasons is the inside presence of Taj Gibson, who has recorded 24 blocks in his last 12 games, while averaging a team-high 1.64 during the season.\u00a0 The team has also dominated the glass during the 2010-11 campaign, out-rebounding its opponents in 39 out of 49 games this year.<\/p>\n

Portland returns home after tallying a 111-105 win over Cleveland to finish off a three-game road trip and will look to improve upon its recent play at home.\u00a0 The Blazers have dropped two of three overall home games while averaging just 86.0 points in the process.\u00a0 \u201cWe need to protect our home court, no matter who we play,\u201d said point guard Andre Miller.\u00a0 The team is only 10-17 on the road, but 17-7 at home, which makes tonight\u2019s contest an important one in terms of the standings.\u00a0 Portland is 13-10 ATS at home this season.<\/p>\n

The Blazers won five straight over the Bulls from 2007-09, but the Bulls have taken the last two meetings between the teams.\u00a0 Portland has won the last two home games versus Chicago by a combined 66 points.\u00a0 The team must focus on stopping forward Carlos Boozer in the paint to pick up a victory, as he averaged a double-double against them last season as a member of the Utah Jazz.\u00a0 Portland holds a 19-1 record when shooting a higher percentage from the field than its opponent.<\/p>\n

Bettors will be interested in backing the Bulls due to their 8-0-1 ATS mark on Mondays, while the Blazers are 0-6-1 ATS versus the Eastern Conference.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a huge night and let the NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports lead you into the winner\u2019s circle!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bulls at Portland Trail Blazers Monday, 2\/7\/11, 10:00 PM EDT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Chicago -1.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Chicago -2 Opening Total:\u00a0 183 Current Total:\u00a0 181.5 Chicago had its six-game winning streak snapped by dropping a 101-90 contest at Golden State and has recorded a 2-10 mark when allowing 100 or more points this […]<\/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":[3615,174,521,830],"class_list":["post-13175","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-andre-miller","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-derrick-rose","tag-portland-trail-blazers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13175","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=13175"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13175\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13177,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13175\/revisions\/13177"}],"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=13175"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13175"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13175"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}