NBA: Milwaukee Bucks VS Chicago Bulls Pick and Predictions 02/16/2023

Game: 7:30 PM ET,  Thursday, February 16th, 2023

Venue:  United Center, Chicago, Illinois

TV:  TNT

Bucks: 40-17, 2nd place Eastern Conference

Bulls: 26-32, 11th place Eastern Conference

BetMGM:  Point Spread: Bucks -7.5, O/U 228.5

PointsBet: Point Spread: Bucks -7.5, O/U 229

Fanduel: Point Spread:  Bucks -7.5, O/U 229

Bucks: PG Jrue Holiday, SG Grayson Allen, SF Joe Ingles, PF Giannis Antetokounmpo (DD), C Brook Lopez

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

An Eastern Conference mismatch… that may be made even by the injury list.  The Milwaukee Bucks are a steam roller… Led by possibly the best player on the planet the Bucks have started beating everyone lately.  They marched up the standings to take 2nd place behind the Boston Celtics… but a few more wins and they will have that first place spot.  However with the last few hours tickling away before the entire NBA takes a break for All-Star Weekend.  The Bucks have listed SF Khri Middleton as OUT, SF/SG Pat Connaughton as OUT, SF/PF Bobby Portis as OUT, and PF Jae Crowder has yet to join the team as an active player and most likely will not until after the break…. Oh and Giannis Antetokounmpo is listed as Day to Day.  So, the Bucks are still better than the Bulls, but will have a lack of depth if things go south.  The Chicago Bulls are a bad team this season… sadly the pop they got last season from adding SF DeMar DeRozan to a good Center and a good SG… has melted away.  Right now they have a place in the standings that would be outside looking in on the Playoff “play-in” game.  To make matters worse SF DeMar DeRozan has been ruled OUT for this game… along with PG Alex Caruso (what else is new?)... PG Goran Dragic (he plays there?)... bench PF Derrick Jones JR… deep bench PF Javonte Green… and PG Lonzo Ball has been OUT for so long they don’t even list him anymore (word is he may never be coming back to basketball after two knee surgeries and a full year off… he still isn’t ready to run consistently).  So the Bulls will have no depth either.

The great betting opportunity here is simple… Look at the point spread and we’ll figure out if Giannis can cover that.

The Milwaukee Bucks have won 10 of their last 10 games.  They seem unstoppable straight up but are 6-4 ATS during the stretch. The winning streak goes longer than 10 games, but we focus on 10 at a time.  They won their last game 131-125 in overtime.  It was actually a huge surprise since the Celtics sat Tatum, Brown, Horford, and Smart…. It was Celtics bench players pressing the Bucks into overtime (and getting the win ATS off the Bucks).  In the win PF Giannis Antetokounmpo had 36 points, 13 rebounds, and 9 assists with 2 blocks. His running mate PG Jrue Holiday scored 40 points while making 8 of 12 3-pointers!  

The Chicago Bulls have won only 4 of their last 10 games…. Going 4-6 ATS during that stretch. They are on a sad 5-game losing streak.  They also lost ATS in all of their last 5 games.  They are scoring so little that they have contributed to 4 UNDERS and only 1 OVER in their last 5 games.  Chicago had a good game last game and wound up losing to the Indiana Pacers 117-113.  That was good because they had failed to break 100 points 3 times… and in 2 of those games they had failed to break 90 points.  In the loss to the Pacers, SG Zach LaVine came alive for 35 points, 11 rebounds, and 7 assists.  Bench guard Coby White got 25 points in 33 minutes.  And Center Nikola Vucevic had 19 points. None of the Bulls however seemed capable of stopping any of the Pacers with 6 Pacers scoring in double figures and Buddy Hield leading the way with 27 pts against them.

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The Bulls are 20th in scoring with 113.3 points per game, 19th in rebounds with 42.7 per game.  On defense they rank 14th while allowing 113.4 points per game.  That is right they score slightly less than they get scored on. A formula for “middle of the pack” obscurity.

The Bucks are 13th in scoring with 114.9 points per game, 1st in rebounds with 49.2 per game. On defense the Bucks rank 7th while holding opponents to 111.8 points per game.  The Bucks are +3.1 points per game over opponents.

Our prediction for Thursday, February 16th is…. Bucks 119 - Bulls 100

Bet on the Bucks.  The Bulls managed to lose by 4 to a team with no Forwards in their last game… essentially getting smacked by 4 shooting yards and a Center. Now against a well-rounded team LaVine and White will not get as many points.

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The Bucks are 5-2 ATS versus Chicago in Chicago the last 3 seasons.

10 of 14 of these matchups have gone UNDER the last 3 seasons.

The Bulls are 5-14 ATS after a road loss this season.

Bucks: PF Giannis Antetokounmpo.  Giannis is listed as Day to Day, BUT it is really bad form to sit out a regular season game right before playing in the All-Star game without any type of announced injury.  So Giannis will play and will have disappointing 2nd year player PF Patrick Williams trying to stop him… formula for a triple double.

Bulls: SG Coby White.  Coby was expected to be a star in the NBA and he is a fun player to watch because of his energy and huge smile… However in a game like this Coby will be trying to fill DeRozan’s shoes and is just not as a good a shooter… or defender.  The team should have tried to trade Zach LaVine (maybe they did try?) knowing they have Coby to step into the SG role where he would be most effective… but now we will never know.

Bucks: Mike “Time to push” Budenholzer

Bulls:  Billy “Should I start drinking?” Donovan