The season has started to slip away from the Miami Heat, so they need a win quickly. Having Chicago Bulls come in to play them on Wednesday is the perfect opportunity to do it. The Bulls will come to try to improve on the string of really bad performances, and a win would help them as well.
Bulls at Heat
Spread: Miami Heat -8 (-110) at BetDSI Sportsbook
Total: Over/under 202 (-110)
Offense nowhere to be found for the Bulls
Well rested after the first win of the season, the Bulls faced an angry Oklahoma City Thunder team coming off a tough loss to Minnesota the night before. The outcome was predictable, but few would have thought that the Bulls will be humiliated like they were. They didn’t compete at all, infuriating their coach, and lost 69-101 in front of a scarce crowd at United Center. Team practice two days later was said to be a really hard one, as the coaches can tolerate losing and learning, but not if the players just go out a surrender before the tipoff.
The Bulls couldn’t crack 70 points, shooting 28.6% from the field, 27% from outside, and had more turnovers (19) than assists (16). Rookie Markannen was tentative and could find open looks against the Thunder switching defense, and starting point guard Jerian Grant took a challenge of what’s said to be an open competition for the place in the first unit by laying an egg. He scored 2 points and missed all of his 7 attempts from the field (six of which from the perimeter). Kris Dunn was amped up on his debut night for the Bulls, outplaying Grant on activity, although he had 4 bad turnovers and jammed his injured finger again late. Holiday and Pondexter sunk the offense by jacking up threes as they get the ball, missing almost all of them. There is nothing positive to take from this game, and it’s just a matter of time until the rumors about Hoiberg’s job security start.
Mirotic opted not to have surgery to repair facial fractures, courtesy of his teammate Portis who is still suspended for the incident, as the story develops. Mirotic’s team informed the Bulls that he won’t veto any deal, and he’ll only visit the training center after the Bulls take off for Miami. Bad chemistry and bad examples for the youngs in the team. The Bulls badly need a good game to lighten up their thoughts.
Place: AmericanAirlines Arena, Miami, Florida
Date/Time: Wednesday, November 1st, 2017. 7:30 PM ET
TV Coverage: SUN, NBCSCH
Heat fall to the Wolves in overtime
For a team that missed the playoffs by a tiebreaker last year, moral victories don’t count. Being close, without their dominant center Whiteside, leaves the sense of what could it be, but the fact that the Miami Heat opened up the season with a 2-4 record while playing all but one game at home, isn’t warming many hearts. The Heat lost for the third time in a row, this time to the Minnesota Timberwolves, 122-125, after overtime.
They came close, but coming close in a game where they led by double-digit for the most of the first half isn’t something to cheer about. The energy was good. They held a team meeting after the previous loss to Boston and they came out hot. Dragic has been playing terrific in the first quarters of all games so far, fading later. Maybe he’s still not being able to find his legs after a very busy summer with the international team of Slovenia. The Heat held the early momentum until a second-quarter surge by Wiggins and the Timberwolves, but still held a slim lead at the half. The rest of the game was on par. It seemed that the Wolves pulled away for good late in regulation, but Waiters led a great late run to send the game to an extra period. Turnovers and poor three-point shooting plagued the Heat. The Heat had a season-high 20 turnovers in regulation and added another 4 in overtime. During the first four minutes of the final period, Miami scored only a single field goal. Dion Waiters finished with 33 points, and Kelly Olynyk had his best game with the Heat with 23. Miami also got 13 points and 13 rebounds from rookie Bam Adebayo in his best showing and 18 points from Dragic, but only 5 after halftime.
On top of missing Whiteside again, the Heat couldn’t use Ellington for more than just 4 minutes due to his illness, so Okaro White entered the short nine-man rotation. High minutes for the starters left them gassed at the end, so having people back would help on all accounts.
Chicago Bulls at Miami Heat Game Trends & Prediction
After covering three times in a row with a help of some large handicaps, the Bulls failed to do so against the OKC, falling to 3-2 against the spread. Despite the current plus on the spread, it’s not recommended to take them seriously. They are also 2-3 against the total points line, with the last two games ending in unders. The Bulls managed to score more than 100 points just once this season, and that was to a lousy Cleveland defense.
The best the Miami Heat could muster was a push, done twice, including last Monday. They are now 0-4-2 against the spread, so hopefully, you haven’t mess with them yet. They are also 4-2 on the over/under market but haven’t been very predictable there either, alternating plus and minus points each time in the previous 5 games.
Admi-Rank: Chicago was never supposed to be any good, so they can sink much further than they already are. On the other side, the Heat figure to be an average team, but haven’t been able to justify their previous ranking. Therefore, they are downtrending as well.
It’s sometimes dangerous to play bad teams after they suffer an embarrassment (think Phoenix), but the Miami is a much better team than the Bulls and any question on who wins this game shouldn’t come to whether Whiteside plays or not. He’d help in the previous game, no doubt, but here, the Heat shouldn’t allow that to be the difference.
My Pick: Heat -8 (-110)
Total: Over 202 (-110)
