{"id":31860,"date":"2013-12-18T14:32:32","date_gmt":"2013-12-18T19:32:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/?p=31860"},"modified":"2013-12-18T14:32:32","modified_gmt":"2013-12-18T19:32:32","slug":"pro-basketball-picks-chicago-bulls-vs-houston-rockets","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/pro-basketball-picks-chicago-bulls-vs-houston-rockets-31860\/","title":{"rendered":"Pro Basketball Picks: Chicago Bulls vs. Houston Rockets"},"content":{"rendered":"

Chicago Bulls vs. Houston Rockets
\nWednesday, 12\/18\/13, 9:30 PM EST
\nOpening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -7
\nCurrent Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -8
\nOpening Total:\u00a0 192
\nCurrent Total:\u00a0 190.5
\nOdds Courtesy of Bookmaker<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"The<\/a>
The Chicago Bulls need forward Luol Deng on the floor versus the Houston Rockets Wednesday night<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Chicago has dropped back-to-back games, including a 83-82 setback to the Orlando Magic as seven-point home favorites Monday, while going UNDER the betting total in each of those affairs.\u00a0 The Bulls are averaging just 79.5 points per game since Dec. 7, which is important to consider when making your pro basketball picks Wednesday night.\u00a0 \u00a0 The team is 3-9 SU on the road this season, including an 0-4 mark when playing against Western Conference opponents.\u00a0 Chicago is 14-13 SU and 9-18 ATS in December the last two-plus seasons, with the UNDER going 17-10 in that situation.<\/p>\n

The Bulls have dropped three games in a row to the Rockets, which can\u2019t be ignored when looking over the pro basketball odds page.\u00a0 Chicago will need a big game from forward Luol Deng, who has averaged 25.7 points on 53.2 percent shooting in his last six contests that he\u2019s participated in.\u00a0 He is scoring a team-high 19.6 points per game\u2014leading the way offensively in 11 contests.<\/p>\n

Houston has alternated wins and losses over its last four games, as it returns home after suffering a 106-91 setback to the Sacramento Kings as 6.5-point road favorites Sunday, while going UNDER the betting total of 214.\u00a0 The Rockets are hoping that shooting guard James Harden is able to shake off an ankle injury, as he\u2019s averaging 24.7 points per game.\u00a0 The franchise is 10-3 SU at the Toyota Center, including wins in all six opportunities against Eastern Conference foes.\u00a0 Houston is 2-0 SUATS when playing on two days rest this season.<\/p>\n

The Rockets have put together a remarkable 31-6 SU record at home in December since 2008, as they get set to play under interim head coach Kelvin Sampson for the 17th time.\u00a0 Houston is third in the NBA in knocking down 47.2 percent of its shots, which has played a major part in ranking second in averaging 107.0 points per game.\u00a0 On the defensive end, the squad has won six of seven games when holding opponents under 40 percent shooting.<\/p>\n

Sports bettors will likely back the Bulls due to the underdog being 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings.<\/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 vs. Houston Rockets Wednesday, 12\/18\/13, 9:30 PM EST Opening Point Spread:\u00a0 Houston -7 Current Betting Line:\u00a0 Houston -8 Opening Total:\u00a0 192 Current Total:\u00a0 190.5 Odds Courtesy of Bookmaker Chicago has dropped back-to-back games, including a 83-82 setback to the Orlando Magic as seven-point home favorites Monday, while going UNDER the betting total in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":15746,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1444,133],"tags":[174,3622,831,3595,3206,3693],"class_list":["post-31860","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-headlines","category-nba-handicapping","tag-chicago-bulls","tag-eastern-conference","tag-houston-rockets","tag-james-harden","tag-luol-deng","tag-western-conference"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31860","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=31860"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31860\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":31861,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/31860\/revisions\/31861"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15746"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=31860"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=31860"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.madduxsports.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=31860"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}