Round 1 of the NBA Playoffs on Sunday and we will see Washington Wizards travel to the United Center in Chicago, Illinois to take on the Chicago Bulls. The game has a start time of 7:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on TNT. Vegas odds have the Bulls listed as 4.5 point favorites, while the total sits at 180.5.
Stat Packs: The Washington Wizards come in as the 5th seed in the east with a 44-38 record. They went 22-19 on the road this year and are 4-0 ATS the last 4 meetings in Chicago. The Wizards are in the middle of the pack in terms of scoring, averaging 100.7 ppg (16th), but they are a decent shooting team, hitting 45.9% of their shots overall (10th) and 38% from long range (5th). Not a good FT shooting team, hitting just 73.1% from the charity stripe, to rank 25th in the league. Leading the offense is John Wall, who averages 19.3 ppg on the year. Wall averaged 20.7 points and eight assists in the three meetings with Chicago. Brady Beal (17.1 ppg) and Trevor Ariza (14.4) round out the top 3 scorers on the team, while Marcin Gortat leads the Wizards in rebounding at 9.5 rpg. Defensively they are decent, allowing 99.4 ppg (9th) on 45.8% shooting (18th) overall and 34.7% from long range (6th).
The Chicago Bulls come in as the 4 th seed in the East, after going 48-34 during the regular season. The Bulls have won 8 of the last 10 games down the stretch and they were 27-14 at home on the year. The Bulls are not much for offense as they rank 30th in both ppg (93.7 ppg) and shooting (43.2%). They do hit their FTs though, connecting on 77.9% of them to rank 7th in the league. DJ Augustine leads the team in scoring at 19.9 ppg, while Carlos Boozer is 2nd at 13.7 ppg. Jimmy Butler (13.1 ppg) and Taj Gibson (13.0 ppg) round out the top 4 scorers on the team. Joakim Noah leads the Bulls in rebounding (11.2 ppg), while also scoring 12.6 ppg (5th on team). The Bulls haven’t worried about their offense all that much cause their defense is tops in the league in points allowed (91.8 ppg), 2nd in defensive FG% (43%) and 8th in 3pt defense (35.1%).
Pick: Going to go with the Under in this one. The Wizards have played some very solid defense down the stretch as they have allowed just 92.9 ppg in their last 8 games and they have allowed just 92.3 ppg in the 3 meetings vs Chicago this year. The Bulls are all about defense as they are #1 in the league in points allowed (91.8 ppg), while at home they have allowed just 89.6 ppg. The Nulls offense looked good down the stretch, but still this team has averaged just 94.5 ppg at home and with this being playoff basketball I just can't see them worrying about scoring a ton of points and going up and down the court. They will win this series with defense, especially at home. The Under is 21-5 the last 26 in the series and I see that trend continuing here.
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