In tonight’s Eastern Conference match-up, we will see Cleveland Cavaliers hosting Chicago Bulls at Quicken Loans Arena in hopes to bounce back from the defeat against Bucks in their recent match.
Cleveland Cavaliers are in a great form currently, holding a respectable 23-9 record, which puts them on 3rd spot in the East. We will not be looking at all of their recent games, except of course their most recent one, in which Bucks proved to be a better opponent than Cleveland, who got their 5 game winning streak broken. The match against Bucks started off slow, with Cleveland managing to accumulate a 4 point lead prior to the 2nd quarter. The 2d quarter was disappointing for Cleveland, who were outscored by 15 points, letting Bucks shot with a high 62.5% accuracy, whereas only managing to shot with 42.1% accuracy themselves. This resulted in Bucks having a nice double-digit lead prior to the 2nd half (69:58). The 3rd quarter was similar to the 1st one, but with Bucks still proving to be a better team, adding 4 more points to their lead (29:25). Last quarter was completely in Cleveland favour, who fought back and even caught up to Bucks at one point, but still failed short of 3 points, in the end, suffering their 1st defeat in the last 5 games. Final result: 119:116.
Today’s visiting team, Chicago Bulls are not in the best spot as of now, sitting at 14th spot in the East, with an overall record of 10-20, but they are playing surprisingly well in recent games. As of now, Bulls are on a well deserved 7 game winning streak. They have improved by a lot in those 7 games, that is especially true for their defence, which has been solid. Looking at Bulls last game against Orlando Magic, it was a pretty straight-forward match for Chicago, who have been a better team in all quarters but the last one, when they were outscored by 6 points. To be fair, those 6 points did not make much of a difference, as Bulls were 24 points ahead of Orlando before going into the last quarter, thus they did not have to worry about Orlando catching up to them. Match ended in an 18 point win for Chicago, who are now 7-0 in the last 7 games played. Final score: 112:94.
Verdict & Prediction
This might be a surprising prediction for many, but I believe Chicago Bulls has much better chances to win this one than Cleveland. As mentioned before Bulls have improved a lot recently and their morale is or should be extremely high. On the other hand, Cleveland are good, no denying that, but they will get into this match fatigued. Their last match against Bucks was hard for them, with all the hard work Cleveland had to put in in the 4th quarter just to have a chance to catch up to Bucks, but as sadly with no success. This will also be the 5th game in 8 days for Cleveland so, regarding fatigue, Bulls are in a much better spot. We will go for the “underdog” here, or so it seems on the paper.
Prediction: Chicago Bulls +10.00
Odds: 2.08 Pinnacle
Prediction: Chicago Bulls to win
Odds: 6.88
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