New Orleans Pelicans vs. Chicago Bulls Predictions, Picks and NBA Preview – January 14, 2017

New Orleans Pelicans vs. Chicago Bulls Betting Preview

Where: United Center, Chicago, IL

When: Saturday, January 14, 2017, 5:00 PM ET

Line: New Orleans Pelicans at Chicago Bulls – view all NBA lines

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Betting on the New Orleans Pelicans (15-24)

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Even without their superstar in the lineup, the New Orleans Pelicans found little to no trouble in defeating the Brooklyn Nets on Thursday, 104-95. The Pelicans won both of their road games in The Big Apple this week to start a new win streak, and they didn’t even need their leading scorer in Anthony Davis (hip) to dispatch the downtrodden Nets at that.

Tyreke Evans scored a season-high 29 points off the bench, while big men Terrence Jones (24 points, 12 rebounds) and Solomon Hill (14 and 10) each secured double-doubles to give New Orleans some much-needed depth in the scoring department in Davis’ absence.

At just 12 turnovers per game this season, the Pelicans are taking good care of the ball to make up for their lack of firepower. And with Davis set to return to the starting unit as early as this Saturday against the Bulls, we should expect the team to soar higher than they have in recent memory if they keep their role players’ productions going as well.

Another promising stat is that the Pels held both the New York and Brooklyn to under 100 points these past couple of contests, and that’s got to be trouble for offensively-inept Chicago. And even though New Orleans is a meager 3-2 in its last five road games, it’s gone a solid 4-1 against the spread during that span, leaving us bettors with a good reason to start believing in these boys from the Big Easy again.

Betting on the Chicago Bulls (19-20)

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Unlike the Pelicans, the Chicago Bulls couldn’t get the job done against the Knicks in New York on Thursday. The Bulls were blown out by the Knicks, 104-89, for their third-straight loss and they’ve even failed to score in triple digits in each of those defeats.

Dwyane Wade led all Chicago players that evening with 22 points, and that’s about the only nice thing you can say about the team during the game. The Bulls shot just 39.8 percent from the field and an even worse 3-for-18 from the three-point line (16.7 percent), continuing their trend of poor shooring from beyond the arc. With a 31.8-percent clip for the season, they are the worst three-point shooting team in the league as we speak, and their offensive woes will likely continue given their lack of health on the roster.

The Bulls played without their three key contributors on Thursday due to unspecified illnesses: Jimmy Butler, Nikola Mirotic and rookie Denzel Valentine. Butler’s absence hurt the most as he is the team’s leading scorer at 25 points per game. The simultaneous return of all three of them in the lineup this Saturday is a possibility, and Chicago really needs more depth to prevent their current skid from getting out of hand.

Not only that, but the Bulls have beaten the Pelicans in four-straight meetings and has swept their season series together seven times over the last 10 seasons. However, they’ve also gone just 1-2-1 against the spread in those last four contests, and their sputtering offense right now is about to become their undoing yet again this weekend against a surging New Orleans squad.

Writer’s Prediction

The Pelicans stay hot on the road, 97-90.

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