{"id":27661,"date":"2013-02-07T12:52:45","date_gmt":"2013-02-07T17:52:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=27661"},"modified":"2013-02-07T12:53:28","modified_gmt":"2013-02-07T17:53:28","slug":"pro-basketball-predictions-chicago-bulls-vs-denver-nuggets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/pro-basketball-predictions-chicago-bulls-vs-denver-nuggets-27661\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Basketball Predictions: Chicago Bulls vs. Denver Nuggets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bulls at Denver Nuggets
\nThursday, 2\/7\/13, 10:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Denver -5
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Denver -6
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 197
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 196.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The
The Denver Nuggets have won 11 of their last 12 home games versus the Chicago Bulls<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chicago has alternated wins and losses over its last four games, as it comes off a 111-101 defeat to the Indiana Pacers as 5.5-point road underdogs Monday night, while going OVER the total for the third time in four contests.\u00a0 The Bulls have struggled recently on the defensive end due to numerous players being out with injuries, which includes allowing the Pacers to shoot 52.7 percent from the field.\u00a0 \u201cI feel like we\u2019re short-handed right now,\u201d stated Bulls center Joakim Noah, who is listed as questionable with a foot injury.\u00a0 Chicago is 3-2 ATS as road underdogs of 3.5 to 6 points this season, with the OVER going 4-1 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Bulls are 14-8 away from the United Center this year, including a 1-4 mark versus Western Conference foes.\u00a0 Chicago has dropped four of the last five meetings in this series, while it has gone 10-29 all-time versus Denver in the Mile High City.\u00a0 Forward Luol Deng will need to get over his recent shooting woes, as he\u2019s knocked down just 34.7 percent of his shots in the last four games.\u00a0 Deng has averaged 19.2 points in his last six meetings versus the Nuggets.<\/p>\n

Denver has won seven games in a row, including a 112-104 victory over the Milwaukee Bucks as seven-point home favorites last time out, while going OVER the total in the last five contests.\u00a0 \u201cWe picked up our defense and that made us play better,\u201d stated Nuggets leading scorer Danilo Gallinari about the team\u2019s recent run.\u00a0 He has scored 20-plus points in eight of his last 15 games.\u00a0 The Nuggets are 21-3 at the Pepsi Center this year, including a 6-2 mark versus Eastern Conference opponents.\u00a0 Denver is 12-16 ATS as home favorites of 3.5 to 6 points the last two-plus seasons, which can\u2019t be ignored when making your NBA picks against the spread Thursday night.<\/p>\n

The Nuggets have won five straight and 11 of their last 12 home games versus the Bulls\u2014a run that dates back to the 1999-2000 campaign.\u00a0 Denver leads the league with 19.3 fast-break points per game, which has been even higher at 26.4 over the last seven contests.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely play the total in this affair, as the UNDER is 4-1 in the last five meetings in this series.<\/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 Denver Nuggets Thursday, 2\/7\/13, 10:30 PM EST, TV:\u00a0 TNT Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Denver -5 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Denver -6 Opening Total:\u00a0 197 Current Total:\u00a0 196.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Chicago has alternated wins and losses over its last four games, as it comes off a 111-101 defeat to the Indiana Pacers as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15651,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[174,212,526,3622,3206,3637,3693],"class_list":["post-27661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-danilo-gallinari","tag-denver-nuggets","tag-eastern-conference","tag-luol-deng","tag-pepsi-center","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27661","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=27661"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27663,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27661\/revisions\/27663"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15651"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}