Houston Rockets at Chicago Bulls 12/13/20: NBA Basketball free preview, analysis, prediction, odds and pick against the spread.
2020-12-13 20:00:00 EDT
The Houston Rockets and Chicago Bulls meet Sunday in NBA preseason action at the United Center.
The Houston Rockets look for another preseason win after beating the Bulls on Friday. The Houston Rockets are averaging 125 points on 43.4 percent shooting and allowing 104 points on 41.3 percent shooting. Bruno Caboclo is averaging 17 points and seven rebounds while Eric Gordon is averaging 16 points and three assists. Gerald Green is the third double-digit scorer and DeMarcus Cousins is grabbing five rebounds. The Houston Rockets are shooting 46.2 percent from beyond the arc and 71.4 percent from the free thitem line. The Houston Rockets are allowing 32.4 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 47 rebounds per game.
The Chicago Bulls could use a win here after losing their preseason opener to the Rockets. The Chicago Bulls are averaging 104 points on 41.3 percent shooting and allowing 125 points on 43.4 percent shooting. Coby White is averaging 15 points and six assists while Lauri Markkanen is averaging 13 points and five rebounds. Noah Vonleh is the third double-digit scorer and Patrick Williams is grabbing three rebounds. The Chicago Bulls are shooting 32.4 percent from beyond the arc and 70.3 percent from the free thitem line. The Chicago Bulls are allowing 46.2 percent shooting from deep and are grabbing 56 rebounds per game.
The Rockets are 1-6 ATS in their last 7 road games and 0-4 ATS in their last 4 games overall. The Bulls are 4-1 ATS in their last 5 home games and 4-1 ATS in their last 5 Sunday games. The under is 7-1 in Rockets last 8 overall. The under is 4-1 in Bulls last 5 overall. The Rockets are 5-1 ATS in the last 6 meetings.
The Houston Rockets are still dealing with that black cloud of the James Harden trade rumors, but they looked comfortable in their preseason game and played with great defensive effort in the blowout victory. The Chicago Bulls were sloppy with the basketball and allowed a lot of transition points. That’s going to happen with a young team, especially when they’ve now played just one game since March. The Rockets were one of the more impressive teams in their preseason debut and Wall mentioned after the game that hopefully it convinces Harden that they can be a good team this season. This seems to be a motivated bunch.
I’ll gladly back the Rockets here.
