It’s a rematch of the Western Conference Finals from last year tonight in Oklahoma City. The Mavericks outlasted the Thunder in a terrific season last year, but the Thunder have the best record in the West so far this season.
Derrick Rose is back in the lineup and the Bulls are playing some terrific basketball right now. Chicago has the best record in the Eastern Conference at 30-8.
This is a match-up between two teams that both came out of the gates hot. The difference between the them now, is that one kept the streak going, while the other has not been able to maintain the success.
A battle between two teams on opposite streaks, that have found themselves almost even in the Northwestern race.
The Celtics avoided what would have been a heart breaking collapse against a very mediocre team in Cleveland, and now will look to keep any kind of momentum gained from that win heading into their matchup with the Nets on Friday night.
The Miami Heat finished the first half of the season on a nine-game winning streak. Not only were the Heat winning those games, they were blowing everyone out of the water.
After a nice comeback win in Philadelphia last night, the Oklahoma City Thunder own the best record in the NBA at 28-7.
Two straight weeks Jeremy Lin has been on the cover of Sports Illustrated. Linsanity has hit the NBA in a big way!
The Lakers had been lacking a signature win in the first half of the year until last night.
The Oklahoma City Thunder have one thing standing in between them and their 11th straight home win Wednesday night–the Boston Celtics.
The injury-depleted Denver Nuggets will be aiming to string together back to back wins after three straight losses when they head to Los Angeles to take on a Clippers team that is hit and miss in their seven outings.
The defending NBA Champions seem to have hit their stride of late. After a slow start to the year, the Mavericks have won five straight games to get to 19-11 on the season.
A couple short weeks ago the Milwaukee Bucks were playing great basketball and the Orlando Magic were in a terrible funk. Fast forward to today and the roles have been reversed.
The Portland Trail Blazers will be playing their final game of three consecutive games in three nights, aiming to end their three-game home losing streak, returning from Golden State to host the Los Angeles Clippers for the second time this season at the Rose Garden on Thursday night.
Derrick Rose hasn’t played for a little over a week, and he is expected to miss this game as well.
8:00 PM EST on TNT
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Still, the Celtics will have a difficult game against the Bulls in Chicago. Kevin Garnett missed last night’s game for the Celtics, and he is questionable for this one. These teams have split their last six meetings with each other. Boston beat the Bulls 95-91 on Sunday, so Chicago will be looking for revenge in this one.
Boston has benefited nicely from the return of point guard Rajon Rondo. Rondo is arguably the team’s best player at this point, and he is the facilitator for the offense. Rondo averages 9.8 assists per game. Paul Pierce leads the Celtics in scoring at 17.8 per contest. Ray Allen, Rajon Rondo, and Kevin Garnett all average about 14 points per game. Brandon Bass is out until the end of the month, and that is a significant loss for the Celtics in the paint. [soliloquy id=”82219″]
Boston has been winning with defense of late. Last night’s loss to Detroit was unexplainable, and Boston will have to play much better if they expect to win this one on the road.
The Bulls miss Derrick Rose in a big way, but this is still a decent team without Rose. Luol Deng put up 23 points Tuesday against Sacramento, and he seems to be fully healthy once again.
Chicago has no shortage of quality big men with Joakim Noah, Carlos Boozer, Taj Gibson, and Omer Asik. Kyle Korver and C.J. Watson are both shooting it very well from deep this year for the Bulls, but it is much more difficult for them to get open looks without Rose in the lineup.
The Bulls are one of the best rebounding teams in the league, and they will need to control the glass to win this game.
The Bulls are 10-1 at home, and the Celtics are notoriously bad on the back end of a back-to-back. I think Chicago will dominate in the paint and win this one.
Prediction: Chicago 91 Boston 87
Portland started the season red hot, but the Blazers have cooled off a bit as the season has progressed.
