{"id":20529,"date":"2011-12-24T20:58:50","date_gmt":"2011-12-25T01:58:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=20529"},"modified":"2011-12-25T09:59:26","modified_gmt":"2011-12-25T14:59:26","slug":"nba-picks-chicago-bulls-vs-los-angeles-lakers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/nba-picks-chicago-bulls-vs-los-angeles-lakers-20529\/","title":{"rendered":"NBA Picks: Chicago Bulls vs. Los Angeles Lakers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bulls at Los Angeles Lakers
\nSunday, 12\/25\/11, 5:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ABC
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Chicago -1.5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Chicago -3.5
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 186
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 185.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"Lakers<\/a>
Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant has endured a tumultuous offseason<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chicago brings back virtually the same team that ended the 2010-11 regular season with the best record in the league before getting eliminated by the Miami Heat in the playoffs.\u00a0 The Bulls made a major investment in their future when signing star point guard Derrick Rose to a lengthy contract extension in the offseason.\u00a0 \u201cOur goal is to win a championship,\u201d Rose commented this week.\u00a0 \u201cI have a lot of believe in my teammates.\u201d\u00a0 He finished last year averaging 25.0 points and 7.7 assists per game.\u00a0 Chicago is 14-15 ATS in December the last two-plus years.<\/p>\n

The Bulls made another key move in the offseason in signing shooting guard Richard Hamilton, who brings them experience at the position.\u00a0 Chicago was missing a player to join Rose on the perimeter, making him a great fit.\u00a0 \u201cHe\u2019s been a premier catch-and-shoot player in the league for a long time,\u201d stated Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau.\u00a0 Carlos Boozer and Joakim Noah are a touch matchup for any team inside, making this squad dangerous during the 2011-12 campaign.<\/p>\n

Los Angeles has tallied a 34-17 record in home openers since moving to the West Coast and will be playing its 13th straight Christmas Day game dating back to 1999.\u00a0 Surprisingly enough, the Lakers are just 4-8 in the previous 12 tries on December 25th.\u00a0 A lot has changed in the offseason and everyone will be watching star Kobe Bryant on the court, who is listed as questionable with a wrist injury, while also getting divorced during the offseason.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ve never quite seen something like this unfold,\u201d stated Bryant this week about the tumultuous offseason.\u00a0 Los Angeles is 17-24 ATS on Sundays the past two-plus seasons.<\/p>\n

The Lakers are definitely sporting a new-look this season in trading away forward Lamar Odom, while starting their first year under the direction of coach Mike Brown.\u00a0 Los Angeles split last season\u2019s two games with Chicago, picking up a 98-91 win as eight-point home favorites inside the Staples Center on Nov. 23, 2010.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to note that the \u2018under\u2019 has cashed in the last three meetings and 7-3 in the last 10.\u00a0 Center Andrew Bynum will not be on the floor Sunday due to serving a four-game suspension for an altercation during the playoffs when the team was eliminated by the Dallas Mavericks.<\/p>\n

Bettors will likely back the Bulls due to their 47-23-3 ATS mark versus the Western Conference, while the Lakers are 2-6 ATS as an underdog.<\/p>\n

Don\u2019t miss out on a winning season and let the NBA handicappers at Maddux Sports line your pockets with cash.\u00a0 Long term packages are available now!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bulls at Los Angeles Lakers Sunday, 12\/25\/11, 5:00 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 ABC Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Chicago -1.5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Chicago -3.5 Opening Total:\u00a0 186 Current Total:\u00a0 185.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Chicago brings back virtually the same team that ended the 2010-11 regular season with the best record in the league before getting […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":3933,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[174,6234,521,67,68,3624],"class_list":["post-20529","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-christmas-day","tag-derrick-rose","tag-kobe-bryant","tag-los-angeles-lakers","tag-staples-center"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20529","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=20529"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20529\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":20540,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/20529\/revisions\/20540"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3933"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=20529"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=20529"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=20529"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}