It’s the last day of school for both the 76ers and Bulls tonight and the two teams should plan on spending a lot of time with the teacher over the Summer. Philadelphia is in their comfortable spot of worst team in the league once again with a disgusting 10-71 record heading into the final tilt of the 2015/16 season. Interestingly enough, Chicago may be the team with more questions than answers as they head into an offseason full of roster disarray, insecurities about their 1st year head coach, and finger pointing all the way up to the front office.
Chicago Bulls Overview
The Bulls were expected to challenge the Cavs for the Eastern Conference title but instead find themselves bound for the NBA lottery with a 41-40 record that is only good enough for the #9 seed. Chicago has benched many of their players to wind down the year and will be without Derrick Rose, Pau Gasol, Taj Gibson, E’Twaun Moore and Mike Dunleavy as they close out their season in front of the home crowd. With the red hot Cubs playing over at Wrigley right around tip-off time and the Blackhawks starting what hopes to be another playoff run later on in the night against the St. Louis Blues, don’t expect much of a home court advantage for Chicago tonight. That may actually be a good thing as the fans who will attend will likely be courteous with the ‘boos’ anyway.
Philadelphia 76ers Overview
It’s business as usual for the 76ers finding their name once again near the top (er, bottom?) of the NBA draft lottery. They have a 64% chance at a top 3 pick and a 25% chance at first overall. They would seemingly up those odds with another loss tonight but the game isn’t about wins and losses, it’s about the -10 line oddsmakers have listed Chicago at.
Philadelphia has lost 15 of 16 heading into tonight’s matchup. They’ve covered the number 8 of those games but have the unfortunate element of flying into Chicago after a 98-122 loss in Toronto last night. Depending on what time the team flew into town last night visitors have also been known to succumb to what is known as “The Rush Street Flu” especially heading into the final game of the year.
The Pick
In a nutshell this game is not going to be for the faint of heart. Tonight’s action isn’t going to conjure up the likenesses of George Mikan gracefully bringing the ball up court of Jerry West smoothly sinking a baseline jumper. That being said the Bulls have won two in a row even with their ‘skeleton crew.’ Philadelphia has allowed 100+ in three straight games while the Bulls combined for 238 points in a 121-116 win over New Orleans on Monday Night. The 10.5 number is too unpredictable in what amounts to be this exhibition game. One thing people don’t do in exhibition games is play defense.
