Charlotte has been a pesky spoiler over the last week, winning three times as an underdog of nine or more points. After beating Dallas twice, the Hornets put a dent in Oklahoma City’s playoff aspirations with a 137-134 win on Tuesday.
Now they face the 10th place team in their own conference, Chicago, who has lost two in a row. The Bulls are still likely going to make the play-in tournament, but they haven’t helped themselves lately by allowing the Clippers and Lakers to both shoot over 50% from the floor. The Clippers shot it at a 59% clip against them on Monday.
I expect this to be another high-scoring contest. The Bulls have shot 51% or better in four straight, so offense hasn’t been the issue. They are averaging 116 points/game in that stretch. The team’s offensive rating has been way up this month.
Charlotte has been short-handed but that hasn’t seemed to matter. P.J. Washington had a career 43 points against OKC and the team shot 55% overall including 14 made threes.
All three prior meetings between the teams this season have stayed Under. But we’re getting a great number here, IMO. Consider that the closing O/U lines for the last two meetings were 235 and 237. 10*