The Chicago Bulls and Brooklyn Nets will face off for the first time this season Tuesday night. The Bulls lost to the 76ers in Philly Saturday night 114-109 as +2.5 underdogs and a total of 221.5 , while the Nets played the Pacers last night at home and won 116-109 but just missed covering as -8 point favorites. The early money has come in on the Bulls as the line opened Nets -3.0 and is now Nets -1.5 to -2.0. The total has dropped from 233.0 to 231.0 which could be from Ben Simmons, Seth Curry, and Andre Drummond being out. Let’s dive in to our Bulls-Nets prediction and see who could be poised for a big night including Zach LaVine.
There are other players who are listed as game time decisions on both sides – Ayo Dosunmu, Zach LaVine, and Coby White for the Bulls and T.J. Warren for the Nets. Bettors should head to DraftKings sportsbook to tail the following Bulls-Nets odds and predictions.
Best Bulls-Nets Odds & Predictions
Bulls Start 3-4
The big storyline for the Bulls so far this season is the management of Zach LaVine‘s knee. He sat the 1st two games of the year, then played 3 games in a row at home (no back-to-backs), sat at San Antonio, and played Saturday against the 76ers. Reports are that LaVine will be a go tonight, but will sit tomorrow against the Hornets.
The Bulls come in ranked around 15th – 20th in key offensive and defensive metrics, so there is no true outlier yet. But they do come in ranked 6th in 1st half points per game and that is where we look to attack tonight.
If Dosunmu or White end up playing it will be considered a bonus and help tonight’s best bet.
Nets Off to Slow Start 2-5
The scary part about this 2-5 start for the Nets is the number of minutes that Kevin Durant, Kyrie Irving, and Ben Simmons have played. It would be understandable if this was a Clippers situation where they are trying to load manage star players, but it is the opposite. KD and Kyrie have been playing 36-40 minutes a game and Ben Simmons is at 36.5 min per game and now out with a knee injury. Head coach Steve Nash HAD a dilemma in that he needs to play his stars to win games, but how soon before KD and Kyrie also end up injured at this pace. Nash was fired as the Nets coach on Tuesday afternoon which makes the Nets side a complete wild card tonight.
This game being the 2nd half of a back-to-back concerns me even this early in the year and the Nets are already 30th in defensive rating along with the Bulls having two days of rest.
Final Odds & Pick
This is a difficult game to handicap because of the unknown status of several players. So, the key is to go with what we know. We know the Bulls have had additional rest and the Nets played last night. We know Zach LaVine is playing and Ben Simmons is OUT. We know the Nets defense is one of the worst in the league so far and the Bulls are 6th in 1st Half points per game. With that being said, I am looking at the Bulls 1H OVER 55.5 points in tonight’s game and I am expecting LaVine to have a big 1st half to help cash this ticket.
Bulls-Nets Pick: Bulls OVER 55.5 points 1H (DraftKings -120)
