The first round of the NBA Playoffs continues on Tuesday 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 9:30 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on TNT. Vegas odds have the Bulls listed as 5.5 point favorites, while the total sits at 181.5.
Stat Packs: The Washington Wizards came into this series as the 5 th seed, but many though they had a chance to knock off the Bulls and game 1 and they did just that, by winning 102-93. The win has the Wizards at 23-19 on the road this year and they are now 5-0 ATS the last 5 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 looked like a team that could make some noise in the playoffs and they still might, but the question will be, do they have enough offense to get the job done. They didn’t in game one putting up just 93 points which is close to their season average. The Bulls have still won 8 of their last 11 games and they are now 27-15 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 with the Under in this one. The Bulls let the Wizards run on them and it's a big reason why they lost game 1. I look for the defense of Chicago to show up big time here and play like they did in the regular season when they lead the league in points allowed at 91.8 ppg. At home they allowed just 89.9 ppg on the year and really aren't capable of a whole lot of offense, especially vs a Wizards team that has allowed just 93 ppg in their last 5 games. Look for a slower paced game and for much more defensive intensity from the Bulls. Mid 170's at best here.
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NBA 1st Round Playoff Preview
Pregame.com's Ken Thomson & Marco D'Angelo preview each series in the 1st round of the NBA playoffs.