Tonight the Chicago Bulls will take on the Dallas Mavericks at American Airlines Arena in Dallas, Texas. The game has a start time of 8:00 pm (Eastern) and will be televised on ESPN. Current Vegas betting odds has Dallas listed as 6.5 point favorites, while the total is set at 204.  

Analysis:  The Chicago Bulls have not been playing their best ball of late, as they come in having won just 3 of their last 8 games, but they are off a huge 23 point home win over the Spurs last night. The Bulls are still a playoff caliber team as they are 28-16 overall, which includes a very nice 15-6 mark on the road. Chicago is 6-0 ATS in the last 6 meetings in Dallas, but just 4-9 ATS in their last 13 vs. the Western Conference. The Bulls have been a very solid offensive team this year, ranking 9th in scoring (102.2 ppg), 19th in shooting, 8th in 3 point shooting and 3rd in FT shooting. Defensively the Bulls have been very average this year, ranking 15th in points allowed (99.3 ppg), 8th in defensive FG% and 19th in 3 point defense (31.8%). 

The Dallas Mavericks are sitting just a half a game out of first place in the Southwest Division with a 30-13 record on the year, that includes a 14-6 record at home. The Mavericks have gone 13-4 ATS in their last 17 vs. the Central Division and 8-2-1 ATS in their last 11 Friday games, but just 3-9-1 ATS in their last 13 home games. Dallas have been very good offensive team his year, ranking 2nd in scoring (108.4 ppg), 4th in shooting, 12th in 3 point shooting and 11th in FT shooting. Defensively the Mavericks have not been good, ranking 23rd in points allowed (102.3 ppg), 16th in defensive FG% and 23rd in 3 point defense.  

Pick: Going to go with the Under in this game. Dallas has not been playing many games in the 200s lately and I feel that Chicago got some defensive confidence after last night's game in which they held the Spurs to just 81 points. For their struggles defensively this year the Bulls have played well at that end of the floor on the road this year, where they have allowed just 96.4 ppg. The Mavs have allowed 102.p ppg at home, but they have allowed just 95.4 ppg in their last 5 overall and the Bulls have scored just 99.7 ppg on the road. Just 2 of the Mavericks last 9 games (Regulation only) have put up more than 203 points and I don't see this one hitting the 200s at all. BTW those last 9 games have averaged just 194.7 ppg (Regulation Only). I feel that the defenses will really show up for this game. 

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