Chicago Bulls vs Boston Celtics Prediction: Expect a low-scoring match

In another NBA regular season game, Boston will play Chicago on the road. The odds on the Celtics' victory continue to drop — should we follow the crowd and bet on the visitors? Let's speculate about that in our prediction. 

The Bulls are still a playoff contender, and the Bulls suddenly have a nice pool of role players at their disposal this summer. Andre Drummond is working on his shortcomings and has become more versatile offensively, though there are still questions on defense. Goran Dragic is proving he can play 15-20 good minutes off the bench, and then there's Alex Caruso and Coby White! Of course, it would be difficult without Lonzo Ball: Chicago simply does not have playmakers of that level, and a good shooter would also be nice. Fortunately DeMar DeRozan has his game face on the line and is playing at least as good as he did last season, and Nikola Vucevic has a better start to the regular season than he did last year. Zach LaVine is coming back from injury, so everything for the Bulls now revolves around the trio of leaders.

Billy Donovan's team lost to Cleveland 96-128 in their last regular season game and it was the Bulls' second loss of the season. DeRozan had a bad game that night, the role players missed too many shots and Zach LaVine's 23 points weren't enough. Their opponent was losing the ball more often and Chicago rarely lost the battle on the boards, but even that did not help them avoid a blowout.

After a rough preseason, the Celtics won all three regular-season games, including ones against Philadelphia and Miami. Boston's coach has already left Al Horford on the bench in one of his games, and the club will surely continue to be careful with its leaders. Malcolm Brogdon is no longer getting the same 30-35 game minutes that he did in Indiana, though he's averaging 12 points — more than starter Marcus Smart. Last season's best defensive player is showing something likely in his half, as Smart's opponents are executing barely 5 percent of their attacks, scoring 11 points on 102 possessions. Jayson Tatum is getting closer and closer to superstar status: with 34.7 points he may very well be the MVP. If you look at the team stats, Boston is suddenly one of the worst in the league in steals, but it ranks seventh in three-point percentage (39.1%).

Last night Joe Mazzulla's team defeated Orlando 126-120 on the road in the regular season. The Celtics made 40% of their three-pointers, led by Sam Hauser with Derrick White, Jayson Tatum and Grant Williams, while Brown and Smart combined for only 2 of 15 shots from beyond the arc. The final quarter was a tight one, with Boston tipping the scales in their favor in large part because they fouled their opponent. Tatum was the top-scorer for the Celtics with 40 points.

The Bulls defended well early in the game against Cleveland. Boston has trouble on offense and is even tougher without the injured Robert Williams and Danilo Gallinari. The Celtics missed 120 points against Orlando, but Al Horford, who plays an important role on defense under the basket, was missing in that game. Marcus Smart can shut down LaVine or DeRozan, and the Chicago key players are unlikely to be very productive. Our prediction for the upcoming game is as follows:

• TU (226.5) for 1.83;
• H1 (+6.5) for 1.81;
• DeMar DeRozan TO (23.5) for 1.74

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