Boston Celtics vs Chicago Bulls betting tips and predictions for Monday’s NBA game on NBA TV. It’s the 3rd meeting of the season between Chicago and Boston as the two teams meet up at TD Garden tonight, with the Bulls leading the season series 2-1. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Boston Celtics
Following their disastrous performance at OKC where they allowed 150 points, the Boston Celtics have responded well with 2 wins at Dallas and San Antonio. The task gets a lot tougher tonight though, for some odd reason Chicago has had their number this season and their only win was a 4-point triumph at home. A big question mark ahead of tonight’s game is the health of Celtics starting point-guard Marcus Smart who is doubtful to play with a knee injury.
That would be a big blow for Boston, they rely on Smart to bring the ball up for majority of the possessions on offense. The duo of Jaylen Brown and Jayson Tatum is expected to step up, they are no strangers to this situation having already played 4 times without Smart this season. Boston has 4 wins in 5 home games, they are 7-2 SU in the last 9 meetings with the Bulls in this building.
Chicago Bulls
Chicago will be relying on their recent form ahead of tonight’s game. They are 8-3 SU in their last 11 games, playing some of the best basketball of the entire season so far. They just ended a 12-game losing streak in games against the Philadelphia 76ers, so confidence will be on a high entering this game. Against the Celtics they’ve done a solid job covering the spread 7 times in the last 8 meetings, including 4 times in their last 5 visits to Boston. Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan had 36 and 35 points in the win over Utah, they’ll be the counter to Brown and Tatum on the Celtics tonight. LaVine in particular has been on fire lately, he had 11 threes in the win over Philadelphia a couple of games ago. In 3 games vs Boston this season, DeRozan is averaging 33 points per game on better than 50% shooting.
I’m expecting a tightly contested match between two Eastern Conference rivals. The Bulls are 9 point dogs here, I can’t see the Celtics beating them by double-digits after Chicago won 2 meetings against them by 14 and 18 points. Go with the road team and the extra points.
Boston Celtics vs Chicago Bulls Predictions & Odds
Two of the three meetings this season have seen less than 237 points which is tonight’s projected total. With Marcus Smart out of the line-up, the Celtics lose a defensive presence at the point-guard position which could hurt them big time here.
Chicago’s recipe for wins lately has been to simply outrun their opponent and score as many points as possible, we saw 7 of their last 9 games go over the total. A similar style of play has been the Celtics was this season, at least in home games where they are 14-6 on the O/U. With the last 3 meetings averaging 230.6 points, I think backing the over is a decent shout here. Chicago is also 12-8 on the O/U in their road games, expect both duos on each team to post big numbers here. Back the points.
