NBA Playoffs Betting – Sunday Picks – Chicago Bulls vs Atlanta Hawks
Before nba betting fans turn their attention to more basketball betting events this week, we have some more good NBA Playoff gambling matchups to pick on tap, and our man Lawrence weighs in with his picks for game 1 of the Celtics vs. Heat . It’s time for our weekly Playoff hoops picks for NBA gambling action.
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BULLS vs. HAWKS
Time: Sunday 8 p.m. EST
Venue: Philips Arena, Atlanta
Spread: Bulls -3.5
Over/Under: 179
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Please explain how a team can be playing at home in the conference playoff semifinals, with home court advantage over the No. 1 seed, and come up and play with so little energy. Unfortunately, that’s how these Hawks roll, and you never really know if these guys plan to go at 50 percent or 100 percent on any given night. There just seems no middle ground.
Atlanta fell behind by 19 points in the second quarter against the Bulls in Game 3 and the Hawks looked like they would prefer to be anywhere except playing for an NBA championship. Coach Larry Drew called a few time-outs, practically begging his team to hit the accelerator a little harder, to no avail. Instead of the Hawks team that went in to Chicago and stunned the Bulls in Game 1, late-arriving fans in Atlanta saw the team that rolled over to Chicago in Game 2, frittering away house money. Now home-court advantage has been lost, and the Hawks absolutely have to have a victory tonight in Game 4 or this series is kaput.
Job One, of course, is trying to do something – anything — that will keep Derrick Rose from going off the way he did in Game 3 (44 points) in what may have been the greatest playoff performance by a scoring point guard since Allen Iverson led the 76ers to The Finals against the Lakers a decade ago. It doesn’t help that Atlanta is without PG Kirk Hinrich, but few tears are shed in the dog-eat-dog NBA.
The Bulls, meanwhile, know that one more half-decent game just about puts this series in the bank, and they can soon start to worry about the real storm clouds on the horizon (Celtics or Heat).
NBA Trends:
CHI are 11-4 ATS in their last 15 road games.
Under is 8-1 in ATL last 9 home games.
Under is 9-3 in ATL last 12 overall.
Over is 6-2 in ATL last 8 vs. NBA Central.
Over is 8-2 in the last 10 meetings in Atlanta.
Over is 10-4 in the last 14 meetings.
BEST BET: It’s simplistic to say, but much of what Atlanta does is dependent on the Hawks’ shooting percentage. Same can be said about just about every team, but the Hawks just don’t do a lot of other things well enough to win an occasional game unless they shoot lights out.
They’re at 40 percent in the two losses vs. the Bulls after shooting 52 percent in the Game 1 win.
Liking Bulls minus the points to go up 3-1.
Lawrence Paul is a regular contributor to the Cappers Picks Blog, and is a free-lance gambling expert from Massachusetts.
