NBA: Chicago Bulls VS Brooklyn Nets Pick and Predictions 02/09/2023

Game: 7:30 PM ET,  Thursday, February 9th, 2023

Venue:  Barclay’s Center, Brooklyn, New York

TV:  TNT

Bulls: 26-28, 9th place Eastern Conference

Nets: 32-22, 5th place Eastern Conference

BetMGM:  Point Spread: Nets -1.5, O/U 225.5

PointsBet: Point Spread: Nets -1, O/U 226.5

Fanduel: Point Spread: Nets -1.5, O/U 225.5

Bulls: PG Ayo Dosunmu, SG Zach LaVine, SF DeMar DeRozan, PF Patrick Williams, C Nikola Vucevic

Nets: PG Ben Simmons, SG Cam Thomas, SF Joe Harris, PF Dorian Finney Smith, C Nic Claxton

A bizarre NBA Eastern Conference matchup.  The Bulls are not the team they were last season even though they have the same players.  The Nets are not the team they were last week… because now they have tons of new players… and they lost 2 NBA All-Stars.. 2 future hall of Famers.  We are entering territory that is hard to bet?  Territory that is hard to negotiate?... The Chicago Bulls are still what they have been all season… A disappointment.  We can’t keep blaming the absence of PG Lonzo Ball to injury.  The truth is the combination of DeRozan, LaVine, and Vucevic… isn’t hardly what it was just 12 months ago.  They are bad together now… and they will be tipping off just hours after the NBA trade deadline… so will they still be the same disappointing team?... The Brooklyn Nets just lost PG Kyrie Irving to a trade with the Mavs and they got back a very good wing defender in SF Dorian Finney Smith.  They also just lost SF Kevin Durant and they got back SF Mikal Bridges, a very good 2-way player on the wing.  The team also got draft assets from both moves… they also got lesser players… In tonight's game Mikal (now the best player on the Nets) will not yet be available to play. The draft assets will also not be able to play for a few seasons… So do the Nets have anything to seriously put on the floor?  The great betting opportunity here will be in comparing two hampered squads… Both of whom could make a last second deadline deal that subtracts yet more players.

The Chicago Bulls have won 6 of their last 10 games.  They lost their last game to the Memphis Grizzlies 104-89.  The lack of scoring has been a very big deal for the Bulls this season. In the loss they got 28 points, 17 rebounds, and 6 assists from C Nikola Vicevic, and 24 points from SG Zach LaVine, but SF DeMar DeRozan did not play because of injury.  The team got virtually nothing from anybody else.  They also had to deal with Grizzlies PG Ja Morant dropping 34 points, 6 rebounds, and 7 assists in just 35 minutes.  It was over long before it was over.

The Brooklyn Nets have won 5 of their last 10 games, but are entirely different since the start of the ten game run… They have lost two NBA all-stars and got back pieces and picks.  We will know the winner of these trades sometime in 2028 or 2029 when all the picks have either been traded or conveyed.  Plus they did not do badly in resticking since Mikal Bridges and Dorian Finney Smith is a really good forward tandem in this league.  Now all they have to do is wait out the two more years and $80 million more dollars left on Ben Simmons contract.  They lost their last game to the Phoenix Suns at the exact same time their respective GM’s were talking deal points offer scotch.  The thing to watch for the Nets is they are 8-2 ATS over the last 10 games.  

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The Bulls are 16th in scoring with 114.2 points per game, 19th in rebounds with 42.7 per game.  On defense they are ranked 16th while allowing 113.8 points per game.  The Bulls are middle of the pack in every metric… In the NBA the middle is a slow death by 1000 cuts.  You don’t win the draft and you don’t make the playoffs.  Sad really.

The Nets are 15th in scoring with 114.4 points per game, 29th in rebounds with 40.3 per game, and 12th on defense with 112.6 points per game allowed.  The Nets aren’t these stats… none of the players chiefly involved in building these numbers have stuck around.  We actually have no idea what team will take the floor… an energized group of above average role players?... Or a broken group that has no identity?

Our prediction for Thursday, February 9th is…. Nets 108 - Bulls 99

Bet on the Nets.  Addition by subtraction works every time.  The Nets lost the best players but they also lost the headaches that come with those crying babies!  They now put the ball in the hands of competent NBA players that have been itching for the opportunity… Plus they have SG Cam Thomas who has dropped 3 40 point games since Kyrie finally took his show to a new sucker.

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All 3 games in this matchup have gone UNDER in Brooklyn the last 3 seasons.

7 of 8 games overall between these teams have gone UNDER the last 3 seasons.

Brooklyn is 10-1 ATS after 2 or more consecutive OVERS this season.

Bulls: SG Zach LaVine.  Zach is fool’s gold.  He scores the ball very well.  If “very well” means taking too many shots and ignoring team basketball.  Zach built this identity when his coach at UCLA played his own son as the starting point guard when Zach was an NBA talent coming off the bench.  That Bruins team lost the National Championship. They could have won it all had the coach’s son been sent to the showers and Zach been given the ball. Funny his current coach was the recipient of all that stupidity as the coach of Florida.

Nets: SG Cam Thomas.  If Cam keeps up his dominant play… the second year players out of LSU are truly a new star in the league.. Which means the Nets have already won.

Bulls: Billy “remember Florida?… PLEASE!” Donovan

Nets: Jacque “what the hell happened?” Vaughn