As they look to right the ship after a bad 109-77 loss at home at the United Center to head coach Rick Carlisle and the Indiana Pacers on Nov. 22, second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls are in an opportune spot. The next two opponents for Donovan and the Bulls look to be very manageable, albeit both games come on the road.
Following the convincing loss to the Pacers earlier this week, the Bulls will face the lowly Houston Rockets on the road on Nov. 24. This is the first of two road games ahead of the weekend for the Bulls that come before and after Thanksgiving Day.
After the Bulls take on the Rockets on Nov. 24, they’re set to battle the Orlando Magic on the road on Nov. 26.
Coming into this game, the Bulls are sporting a record of 12-6 following the Nov. 22 32-point loss to the Pacers at home. Meanwhile, the Rockets come into this game sporting a record of 1-16 following a Nov. 22 loss on the road to the Boston Celtics.
The Rockets currently hold the longest losing streak in the NBA, at 15 games. And it sounds like head coach Stephen Silas could be put on the hot seat before too long until this young Rockets’ core starts to show more signs of life in the weeks ahead.
After Luke Walton’s departure in Sacramento, the Houston Rockets are weighing the future of head coach Stephen Silas, according to league sources. More on the complicated dynamic at @BR_NBA: https://t.co/7rXbZzWONG
— Jake Fischer (@JakeLFischer) November 24, 2021
This game should be one where the Bulls pretty easily bounce back to get to 13 wins on the season. Here’s a look at the betting odds and score prediction as the Bulls take on the Rockets on the road at the Toyota Center on Nov. 24, with tip-off time set for 7 p.m. CT.
Chicago Bulls vs. Houston Rockets betting odds
According to WynnBet, the Bulls are roughly a nine-point favorite a little less than seven hours ahead of tip-off against the Rockets. And the over/under is currently set at 216.5 points.
The ESPN matchup predictor (based on the Basketball Power Index) does only give the Bulls roughly a 64 percent chance to beat the Rockets on Nov. 24. That seems like a small percentage for the Bulls to be able to top a Rockets team that is struggling in a dire way this season.
Chicago Bulls vs. Houston Rockets prediction
It doesn’t seem like it makes much sense for Donovan and the Bulls staff to rush the likes of point guard Alex Caruso and star center Nikola Vucevic back in this meeting with the Rockets. Caruso missed the Nov. 22 loss to the Pacers with injury and Vucevic was out for roughly the last two weeks due to the league’s health and safety protocol.
Early this week, it sounded like the earliest that the Bulls might see Vucevic return to the lineup was in the road meeting with his former team, the Magic, on Nov. 26 in Orlando.
Bulls list Alex Caruso and Nikola Vucevic as questionable vs. Rockets. That's 50-50 in injury report parlance.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) November 23, 2021
But the Bulls reportedly have Caruso and Vucevic listed as “questionable” or “50-50” ahead of this meeting with the Rockets on Nov. 24. If the Bulls aren’t fully confident that Vucevic and Caruso are ready to go, it would probably be wise to rest them for the set of back-to-back games coming up this weekend on the road against the Magic and Miami Heat.
Nonetheless, this really feels like a game that the Bulls should be able to win pretty easily on the road. The Rockets don’t really have anyone standing out lately, and the Bulls still have the star duo of shooting guard Zach LaVine and shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan rolling offensively out of the gates this season.