Chicago at Philadelphia

The Bulls may be the No. 1 seed, but they are banged up, with no Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah limping about. They are down two games to one and the pressure is on. The Bulls are 2-5 ATS in their last seven road games and 1-5 ATS in their last six road games vs. a team with a winning home record. While Chicago is dealing with injuries, a young athletic Philadelphia team is playing well and has been getting healthy with the return of 7-foot center Spencer Hawes from injuries early in the year. He's a huge part of their offense and defense and had 21 points, 9 rebounds in their last game. The offensive game plan against Chicago called for the big men - Hawes, Lavoy Allen, Elton Brand, and Thaddeus Young to take advantage of Chicago's determination to keep the guards out of the lane. For five days, the Sixers worked on little pick-and-pop moves for the big men, plays in which the frontcourt guys release from the post, take an easy pass, and bury a little 10-footer and it worked. Coach Doug Collins knew those shots would be there because of how Chicago plays its defense. He knew exactly how to design the offense to produce that result. Short-handed Chicago also looked tired down the stretch and that won't change for Game 4. The 76ers are 6-2 ATS in their last eight games overall and the favorite is 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings. Play the 76ers in Game 4.