{"id":15388,"date":"2011-05-12T15:37:59","date_gmt":"2011-05-12T20:37:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=15388"},"modified":"2011-05-12T15:37:59","modified_gmt":"2011-05-12T20:37:59","slug":"game-6-madness-chicago-bulls-at-atlanta-hawks-betting-preview","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/game-6-madness-chicago-bulls-at-atlanta-hawks-betting-preview-15388\/","title":{"rendered":"Game 6 Madness: Chicago Bulls At Atlanta Hawks Betting Preview"},"content":{"rendered":"

Game 6:\u00a0 Chicago Bulls AT Atlanta Hawks<\/strong>
\nMay 12, 2011 at 8:00 PM EST<\/strong>
\nOpening Line:\u00a0 CHI -3.5<\/strong>
\nCurrent Line:\u00a0 CHI -3.5<\/strong>
\nOpening Moneyline:\u00a0 CHI -165, ATL +145<\/strong>
\nCurrent Moneyline:\u00a0 CHI -160, ATL +140<\/strong>
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 179<\/strong>
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 178.5<\/strong><\/p>\n

Bulls Lead Series 3-2<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"
Joe Johnson shot just 6 of 15 from the floor Thursday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Someone had to take the series edge after game 5, and while it wasn’t the Hawks, they are far from considering themselves out of a series that only requires them to win two straight to advance to face the seemingly undefeatable Heat.<\/p>\n

Jeff Teague has been impressing people all series after spending two years in Atlanta in relative obscurity behind first Mike Bibby and then Kirk Hinrich.\u00a0 He’s played better than both have ever played for the Hawks.\u00a0 \u201cIf we get this win,\u201d Teague said in reference to tonight’s game, \u201cI think there\u2019s a good chance we\u2019ll get Game 7. I feel like there would be a lot of pressure on them playing at home in Game 7. I think we could come in there a little more free, just come in and play our game. It would be interesting.\u201d<\/p>\n

Teague was the only Atlanta starter to shoot above 50% from the field in game 5, as he went 8 of 11 from the floor and 5 of 7 from the line en route to a team high 21 points.\u00a0 Jamal Crawford was once again abysmal from the floor (1 of 9) and if it weren’t for Teague’s improved play the Hawks would have already been sent home.<\/p>\n

While Teague has thrived on offense, nothing he has tried defensively on Rose has worked.\u00a0 While Rose had been inefficient at times in the series, he made 11 of 24 shots Thursday night and got to the line 13 times.\u00a0 He also dropped 9 dimes while committing only 2 turnovers.\u00a0 If he plays with that kind of efficiency every night it will be difficult to beat the Bulls.<\/p>\n

Even with the Bulls receiving minimal scoring efforts from Boozer, they have been able to keep pace with and outscore the Hawks.\u00a0 They’re going to need Boozer to step it up, however, if they want to get past the Heat in the next round.\u00a0 Boozer believes in the Bulls and thinks the playoffs are supposed to be this way — close.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo matter the situation, down or up, we believe,\u201d Boozer said. \u201cThey\u2019re a good team. They\u2019re aren\u2019t going to be too many times in the playoffs when you blow a team out. In the course of a game there are going to be waves. \u2026 This is two very good teams battling things out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ronnie Brewer knows the Bulls have their work cut out for them when they’re not in the United Center.\u00a0 \u201cWhen we go to Atlanta,\u201d\u00a0 Brewer said, \u201cour crowd\u2019s not going to be there. So we\u2019ve got to find the passion and intensity that it takes to win.\u201d<\/p>\n

Josh Smith had a minor altercation with Boozer last game following a dunk celebration but the league took no action in fining or suspending either player.\u00a0 Smith just dismissed the incident as part and parcel of being in an intense series.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s a physical game, man,\u201d Smith commented Wednesday following shoot around. \u201cYou\u2019re going to scratch and claw and do whatever you can to win this series. You might even do a little something extra. It was a little cheap shot by him, but it is what it is. I think it got handled and dealt with. Hopefully it doesn\u2019t happen again.\u201d<\/p>\n

Smith will need to focus his efforts defensively more on Luol Deng and less on help defense.\u00a0 In Game 5, Deng played 45 minutes and scored 23 points, while posting the highest +\/- (+15) of any Bull other than Derrick Rose.\u00a0 Only one Atlanta player even posted a positive +\/- with Pachulia being +3.\u00a0 That’s the sign of a tough game, but when Zaza is in the the Hawks are a better team than with Collins or any of their pathetic centers.<\/p>\n

Some betting trends:<\/p>\n

The total has gone OVER in 4 of Chicago’s last 6 games and the Bulls are 16-3 SU in their last 19 games.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 8 of their last 12 games on the road and the Bulls are 9-2 SU in their last 11 games on the road.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER In 11 of the Bulls’ last 16 games against the Atlanta Hawks and the Bulls are 5-2 SU in their last 7 against Atlanta.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 9 of the Bulls’ last 11 games on the road against the Hawks while the Bulls are 2-5 ATS in their last 7 road games against the Hawks.<\/p>\n

The total has gone UNDER in 10 of Atlanta’s last 14 games and the Hawks are 4-1 SU in their last 5 games at home.\u00a0 The total has gone UNDER In 8 of Atlanta’s last 10 games at home and it has gone OVER in 11 of their last 16 games against the Bulls.\u00a0 The Hawks are 2-5 SU in their last 7 against Chicago and they are 2-5 ATS in those 7 games.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER in 9 of Atlanta’s lst 11 games at home against the Bulls.\u00a0 The total has gone OVER In 9 of Atlanta’s last 11 games at home against the Bulls while the Hawks are 7-2 SU in their last 9 games at home against the Bulls.<\/p>\n

Tonight’s game is a must win for the Hawks, and the Bulls will be wise to treat the game the same way.\u00a0 While a loss would force a game 7 at home, anything can happen at that point between two teams that have been close all series.\u00a0 While no one expected this from the Hawks, they haven’t even been playing their best ball.\u00a0 At times in the Orlando series, the Hawks backcourt looked unstoppable.\u00a0 If Joe Johnson and Jamal Crawford could return to form, the Hawks could come back and win the series.\u00a0 If not, happy fishing, Hawks.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Game 6:\u00a0 Chicago Bulls AT Atlanta Hawks May 12, 2011 at 8:00 PM EST Opening Line:\u00a0 CHI -3.5 Current Line:\u00a0 CHI -3.5 Opening Moneyline:\u00a0 CHI -165, ATL +145 Current Moneyline:\u00a0 CHI -160, ATL +140 Opening Total:\u00a0 179 Current Total:\u00a0 178.5 Bulls Lead Series 3-2 Someone had to take the series edge after game 5, and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":40250,"featured_media":9355,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[834,2067,174,521,4357,4912,2897,3276,3206,4206],"class_list":["post-15388","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-atlanta-hawks","tag-carlos-boozer","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-derrick-rose","tag-jamal-crawford","tag-jeff-teague","tag-joe-johnson","tag-josh-smith","tag-luol-deng","tag-zaza-pachulia"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15388","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=15388"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15388\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15390,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15388\/revisions\/15390"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9355"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15388"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15388"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15388"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}