New York Knicks (9-7) vs. Chicago Bulls (11-5)
November 21, 2021 8:00 pm EDT
The Line: Chicago Bulls -5.5; Over/Under: -210.5
(Get latest betting odds)
The Chicago Bulls play host to the New York Knicks at the United Center on Sunday night.
The New York Knicks have been struggling for consistency lately as they’ve split their last eight games, but they will be feeling a little better after taking down the Rockets in a 106-99 home win last night. Alec Burks drained six 3-pointers to lead the team in scoring with 20 points and five steals off the bench, Evan Fournier added 19 points, Julius Randle scored 16 points with 10 rebounds and nine assists while Immanuel Quickley chipped in with 13 points off the bench. As a team, the Knicks shot just 42 percent from the field and 18 of 41 from the 3-point line as they struggled to get going once again and scored just 13 points in the first quarter to fall behind by 10 points early, before pouring in 34 points in the second quarter to level the scores at halftime. It wasn’t all smooth sailing after that as the Knicks were in an arm wrestle until late in the fourth quarter where they closed the final 4:56 on a 17-8 run to escape with the narrow win.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls have been in great form as they’ve won five of their past seven games and they will be aiming to stay hot after taking down the Nuggets in a 114-108 road win on Friday. Zach LaVine led the team with 36 points on 14 of 24 shooting, DeMar DeRozan added 26 points with four assists while Derrick Jones Jr. chipped in with 16 points and eight rebounds off the bench. As a team, the Bulls shot 44 percent from the field and eight of 31 from the 3-point line as they did all of their damage in the third quarter where they poured in 35 points to lead by as many as 12 points before holding off a late rally from the Nuggets who got to within three points with 3:00 remaining. Alex Caruso finished with just four points on one of eight shooting while Coby White scored just two points on one of seven shooting off the bench.
Looking at the betting trends, the Knicks are 17-8 ATS in their last 25 road games, 8-1 ATS in their last nine games playing on zero days’ rest and 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games overall. The Bulls are 7-2 ATS in their last nine home games and 5-2 ATS in their last seven games overall.
Head to head, the under is 4-0 in the last four meetings overall and the Knicks are 4-1 ATS in the last five meetings overall.
The Knicks haven’t looked anything like the team that was on fire at the start of the season and they were far from convincing in their hard-fought win over the league-worst Rockets last night. The Bulls started the season as one of the surprise teams of the league but they’ve up that standard and will only be growing in confidence after beating the Nuggets on Friday. The Knicks are only 3-7 ATS in their last 10 games overall, so I’m sticking with the Bulls to stay hot with another win and cover in this spot.
