Chicago Bulls vs Portland Trail Blazers Point Spread Picks

The bad news for the Bulls is that they have yet to win this month. The good news is this spot sets up for Chicago to end its 10-game losing streak. Getting this many points is a nice bonus. Both teams are banged up. But Chicago has its best player, point guard Josh Giddey, healthy. Giddey leads Chicago in scoring and assists. Portland is without its two top scorers, Deni Avdija and Shaedon Sharpe. Both are injured. They combine to average 45.8 points a game. The Bulls are a semi-respectable 15-16 at the United Center. The Trail Blazers are 12-16 on the road. The Bulls have won the past two meetings, including a 122-121 victory over the Trail Blazers in November. Portland doesn't have a natural scorer or a go-to guy without Avdija and Sharpe. That makes it a struggle to score even against a weak Bulls defense. Portland is going to have to rely strongly on its defense. The Trail Blazers held the Suns to a season-low 77 points two games ago. The Bulls certainly don't want to conclude this month without a victory. So their defensive intensity should be up. Take the Bulls, and grab the UNDER for a unit.  

It was one of the more improbable NBA victories of the season. The Bulls defeated the Nuggets on Monday, 130-127, as 14-point road underdogs. Chicago entered that matchup having lost five consecutive games, including 150-147 to the Jazz in Utah in double overtime the night before. So what do the Bulls do for an encore here? Lose. It is Chicago's fourth away game in a row and third matchup in four days. The Bulls' fatigue rating is even higher considering their last two games - at Denver and at Utah - were played in high mountain altitude. The Trail Blazers are really pointing to this game after a disappointing home loss to the Suns, 127-110, as a short favorite last night. Portland is a top-10 scoring team. The Bulls rank second-to-last defensively, surrendering an average of 132.1 points a game. Take the Trail Blazers on the moneyline.

Chicago went OVER by 13 points in its 125-123 loss to Charlotte on Friday. Portland has gone OVER five of six home games against teams with winning road records and surprisingly the Bulls have a better record on the road than at home. Chicago shoots 37.3 percent on 3-point tries and that is #4 in the NBA while averaging 117.6 points per game. Portland went OVER while losing its fifth in a row 125-103 on Saturday night. The Trail Blazers have allowed an average of 122.2 points during the losing streak and they'll be a tired team defensively playing on consecutive nights. Take the OVER.

The NBA has become a very high scoring league, and when you hold a tem under 100 points it is a great defensive effort. Portland traded away almost all its scoring punch, and it doesn't take muh of an effort to hold this team under 100 points. The Trailblazers rank 2nd in the league in games played where they do not score 100 points or more as they have done it 19 times already. The Bulls aren't very offensive either as they rank 9th most in games scoring fewer than 100 points. They met in Portland earlier in the season with a final score of 104-96. I see a similar result toonight Make the play UNDER the total.