{"id":13436,"date":"2011-02-17T11:54:50","date_gmt":"2011-02-17T16:54:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=13436"},"modified":"2011-02-17T11:54:50","modified_gmt":"2011-02-17T16:54:50","slug":"san-antonio-spurs-at-chicago-bulls-expert-nba-picks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/san-antonio-spurs-at-chicago-bulls-expert-nba-picks-13436\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonio Spurs at Chicago Bulls Expert NBA Picks"},"content":{"rendered":"

San Antonio Spurs at Chicago Bulls
\nThursday, 2\/17\/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Chicago -2
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Chicago -2
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 190.5
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 189<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Chicago Bulls PG Derrick Rose scored 33 points in a earlier season loss against the San Antonio Spurs<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

San Antonio is considered the top road team in the league with a 21-7 mark away from home and will look to capture one final win on its rodeo trip with a visit to Chicago on Thursday night.\u00a0 The Spurs are coming off a 102-85 win over the Nets, with six players scoring in double figures and Richard Jefferson being the only player to log more than 30 minutes of action.\u00a0 The team is 6-2 on its annual road swing while the rodeo is stationed at the AT&T Center and coach Gregg Popovich knows its time to return home.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re feeling a few bumps and bruises,\u201d he commented.\u00a0 \u201cThey\u2019re professionals and they know what\u2019s expected of them.\u00a0 So no game can be left without trying to get better.\u201d\u00a0 San Antonio is 7-1 ATS as a road underdog of three points or less this season and currently in that range on the NBA lines page.<\/p>\n

The Spurs are a perfect 10-0 versus Eastern Conference opponents at home, but are just 7-4 when facing such foes on the road.\u00a0 San Antonio leads the all-time series with Chicago, 46-27, and picked up a 103-94 win at home in the first meeting.\u00a0 The squad erased a 17-point deficit in that particular contest to come away with the victory.\u00a0 The Spurs are 46-9, which is the best record through 55 games in franchise history.\u00a0 It makes them the ninth time in NBA history to post such a record, as the best record through 55 games is 49-6.<\/p>\n

Chicago is focused on capturing its 15th win in 16 games at the United Center and close out the unofficial first half of the season on a high.\u00a0 \u201cGuys are extremely confident,\u201d forward Carlos Boozer stated.\u00a0 \u201cWe\u2019re a team – not just one guy, two guys, three guys, we\u2019re a group of guys.\u201d\u00a0 The Bulls have had their share of injury problems in the early going, but should be at full strength after the All-Star break when center Joakim Noah returns from thumb surgery.\u00a0 Boozer was one of those players that was dinged up early and actually missed the first meeting with San Antonio on November 17.\u00a0 \u00a0 Chicago is 17-10 ATS at home this season and 60-51 ATS over the last three years.<\/p>\n

The Bulls tallied a 106-94 victory against the Bobcats last time out, led by guard Derrick Rose scoring 18 points and dishing out 13 assists.\u00a0 Chicago will rely heavily on his contributions tonight due to the 33 points he scored in the first meeting against San Antonio.\u00a0 The team will be focused defensively on stopping the Spurs in the third quarter, as they were outscored 37-12 during those 12 minutes in the first meeting.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Spurs due to their 6-2 ATS mark in the last eight meetings in Chicago, while the Bulls will be confident knowing the favorite is 5-2 ATS in this series.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

San Antonio Spurs at Chicago Bulls Thursday, 2\/17\/11, 8:00 PM EDT, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Chicago -2 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Chicago -2 Opening Total:\u00a0 190.5 Current Total:\u00a0 189 San Antonio is considered the top road team in the league with a 21-7 mark away from home and will look to capture one final win […]<\/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":[2067,174,521,3622,935,141],"class_list":["post-13436","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-richard-jefferson","tag-san-antonio-spurs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13436","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=13436"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13436\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13438,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13436\/revisions\/13438"}],"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=13436"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13436"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13436"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}