Nets vs Bulls NBA Handicapping
Tonight the Brooklyn Nets pay the price for not winning Game 2 on their home court.
Road wins in the playoffs are plated with gold, and the Bulls may have nailed down the series a little more than a week ago when they sucked it up in Brooklyn and came away with a 90-82 victory after being blown off the hardwood by 17 points in the opener.
Eastern Conference
Brooklyn Nets (2-3) at Chicago Bulls (3-2)
Thursday, May 2
United Center, Chicago
8 p.m. EST
Spread – Bulls -1.5 at Bovada
O/U – 183.5
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The Bulls were able to hold serve in both games in Chicago, and now the Nets return to the Midwest needing a road win to keep the series alive and avoid the ignominy of an early-May trip to Disney World.
And in a move that would make Bill Belichick want to wring someone’s neck, Brooklyn’s Joe Johnson revealed yesterday that his feet are killing him.
“We tried to rest it as much as possible, but obviously it wasn’t enough time,” said Johnson, who is suffering from plantar fasciitis.
“I’m just giving them everything I’ve got at this point.”
NBA playoff basketball against a rugged defensive opponent is probably the last thing any doctor would prescribe with someone dealing with plantar fasciitis, but when your team is down 3-2 in a best-of-7 series, it’s all hands on deck regardless of what your issue is. [ad-6571516]
Johnson has actually shot halfway decent in the series – 44 percent. But his long-range game has suffered; he’s shooting just 29 percent from beyond the 3-point line, which is a significant dropoff from the 37.5 percent he turned in during the regular season.
The Bulls says they’ll see Johnson’s 3-point shooting and raise. Luol Deng is a horrific 1 for 18 on 3-pointers during the series, and Chicago coach Tom Thibodeau must certainly wonder what the heck is going on with his best wing player. Nate Roinson has come out of nowhere to pick up the slack, though, and is averaging 27 over the last two games.
With the Bulls, past performance is hardly an indicator of future results. Brooklyn’s Game 5 win hardly fazed the likes of Carlos Boozer. “We’re one of those teams that always bounces back,” said Boozer yesterday.
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This one figures to go deep into the fourth period, and when that happens, the Bulls have an edge. In this series, the Bulls win the close ones and the Nets win the blowouts. In fact, Brooklyn has actually outscored Chicago over five games, 508-501. Hard to bet against the Bulls at home, even if Kirk Hinrich (calf injury) is out again.
Chicago to cover the 1.5, especially if Robinson can continue to hold his own against Deron Williams.
