Can the Chicago Bulls lift themselves into the upper half of the Eastern Conference play-in teams this season?
Chicago is currently the No. 10 seed, and the team is bracing for life without Lonzo Ball for an entire season after he admitted that he’s still experiencing discomfort in his surgically repaired knee.
On Monday, the Bulls take on the Atlanta Hawks, who are playing some of their best basketball of the 2022-23 season, winning seven of their last 10 games to pull within half a game of the No. 7 seed in the East.
Both of these teams had high expectations entering this season, but they have underperformed so far. With the trade deadline coming up in a few weeks, both Atlanta and Chicago may need to make a bit of a run to justify not making a move to re-tool season.
Here’s a look at the Bulls-Hawks odds, as well as my favorite play in this game:
Hawks vs. Bulls odds, spread and total
Hawks vs. Bulls prediction and pick
The Hawks are playing much better over their last 10 games after ranking in the bottom 10 in net rating for most of the season, but they still don’t have a better net rating than the Bulls in their last 10, despite posting a better record.
Chicago ranks seventh in the NBA in net rating over this stretch (Atlanta is ninth). The Bulls have the talent to be a playoff team, but they have to put everything together, especially on offense, where they rank just 19th this season.
The Hawks are actually over .500 against the spread as road dogs this season, but I like Chicago to win this game.
Chicago is 12-10 at home this season, and it’s coming into this game with a massive rest advantage, last playing on Thursday in Paris against the Detroit Pistons.
The Bulls have some good home wins, including one over the Golden State Warriors as of late. With such a close spread, I’ll just ride with the slight home favorite in this game.
Find Peter Dewey’s full betting record here.
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Game odds refresh periodically and are subject to change.