Chicago Bulls vs Milwaukee Bucks betting tips and predictions for Friday’s NBA Eastern Conference Playoff game on ABC. With the series being tied at 1-1, the pressure is now on the defending champions Milwaukee Bucks to respond as they head to United Center for Game 3 against the Chicago Bulls. Read on for all our free predictions and betting tips.
Chicago Bulls
DeMar DeRozan played arguably the best playoff game of his career in Game 2 and the Bulls won by 4 points on the road. DeMar finished with 41 points and 7 rebounds, showing once more why he was in the MVP conversation for a decent stretch of the regular season. Nikola Vucevic and Zach LaVine added 24 and 20 points of their own and now the Bulls are in a really solid position heading home. They have to win the next 2 to keep hold of home court advantage, which won’t be an easy task against a team that’s beaten them 17 times in the last 19 meetings.
The Bulls are optimistic about playing at home though. At the United Center they finished the regular season with a 27-14 record while also covering the spread 25 times in those 41 games. However, playing in the underdog role hasn’t been kind to them – they are just 9-27 SU in those games this season, they enter tonight’s game as 2.5 point dogs.
Milwaukee Bucks
It was all bad news for the Bucks in that Game 2 loss as their 2nd best player Khris Middleton went down with a knee injury which is likely going to keep him out for at least 3 weeks according to reports. That is a big blow to their ambitions long term, they should still get past the Bulls even without him though.
Giannis Antetokounmpo has had two solid games so far in this series averaging 30 points, but his team will need him to be a lot more assertive in tonight’s game if they want to steal one on the road. Milwaukee’s form in road games at Chicago has been stellar – they are 11-1 ATS in their last 12 visits. Plus against Eastern Conference teams they’ve won 12 of 14 games, tonight’s game will be a pretty big test for them.
Despite losing Middleton, I still believe the Bucks have the better team. Bobby Portis is expected to play after leaving the last game with an eye injury. The role players will have to step up, they’ve already won twice at Chicago during the regular season and I see them doing so in tonight’s game as well. Back the road team to cover.
Chicago Bulls vs Milwaukee Bucks Predictions & Odds
Scoring 114 on the road in Game 2 was a massive accomplishment for the Bulls in this series as Milwaukee is holding them to an average of just 101.6 points per game over the last 10 meetings. The total has gone under in 8 of the last 10 played between these two, but I think we could be headed towards a high scoring game tonight. Milwaukee’s sense of urgency will be a lot higher in this one after they no longer have home court advantage.
The total has gone over in 6 of their last 8 games, plus for the season they are 22-19 on the O/U in games away from home. The Bulls have also had more games finish over the total than under in home games with a 22-18-1 record. Out of their last 5 games at United Center 4 of them have gone over the total and the last time they played in their own building they put up 127 points on the mighty Boston Celtics defence.
The bucks will miss Middleton’s contribution on defence, but thankfully they have plenty of scoring options to compensate. They play the 7th fastest pace in the NBA and have the 3rd highest offensive efficiency, because of that I think backing the over is the way to go in this one.
