The Bulls and Sixers open the ESPN\u2019s Saturday double-header at the Wellls Fargo Centre (all times AEST).<\/p>\n
After a sluggish start to the season Chicago were finally starting to get it together to make a push towards the playoffs, but did recently drop six in a row. They have won two of their last three.<\/p>\n
They remain in the East\u2019s ninth seed at 15-27 but with a host of rival teams right on their tale, including the Pistons, Hornets and Wizards.<\/p>\n
Chicago will be without Wendell Carter Jr for the next 4-5 weeks after the big man suffered a severe ankle sprain in a major blow for this team.<\/p>\n
The Sixers haven\u2019t looked great without star big man Joel Embiid, going 2-2 in his absence. Embiid was cleared for non-contact work at training and will be re-evaluated in roughly one week.<\/p>\n
Ben Simmons has picked up the slack in his absence, averaging 18.5 points, 8.5 rebounds, seven assists and 1.8 steals over the last week.<\/p>\n
Philly are one of the best home teams in the league where they are 19-2.<\/p>\n
Tip<\/a>: Philadelphia -2.5 @ $1.44<\/a><\/p>\n The Heat are in Oklahoma City a huge inter-conference battle.<\/p>\n Miami dropped two games in a row on the road to the Nets and Knicks but got things back on track with a narrow 106-100 win over the Spurs.<\/p>\n The Heat still impressively sit second in the East at 28-12, in large due to their 18-1 home record. They don\u2019t fare as well on the road though (10-11), which is one of the keys to this team going to the next level.<\/p>\n Sharpshooting rookie Tyler Herro is day-to-day with a knee injury but is travelling with the team for this one.<\/p>\n The Thunder have dropped two of their last three but have been one of the biggest surprise packages this season for a team many predicted would finish in the bottom three.<\/p>\n OKC are 23-18 behind the steady play of Chris Paul, Shai-Gilgeous Alexander, Danilo Gallinari, Denis Schroder and Steven Adams and a 107.5 defensive rating, which is equal with Miami\u2019s.<\/p>\n Adams is questionable for this one with a knee issue and Nerlens Noel has missed the last six games with an ankle sprain, which will leave the Thunder\u2019s frontcourt thin.<\/p>\n Tip<\/strong>: Miami to win @ $1.96<\/a><\/p>\n The Blazers are in Dallas to close out the ESPN double-header.<\/p>\n Portland are fighting it out for the eight seed, currently sitting 10th at 18-24. They have won their last two against Hornets and Chicago and are arguably the most likely team to climb into the playoffs should a Memphis or OKC cool off.<\/p>\n You can never write off a team led by Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum though, while Carmelo Anthony is quietly having a very solid campaign. Hassan Whiteside leads the league in blocks at 2.87 per game.<\/p>\n The Mavs are starting to work it out with Kristaps Porzingis on the shelf, winning three in a row over the Sixers, Warriors and Kings to hold down the West\u2019s sixth seed at 26-15.<\/p>\n Porzingis was supposed to face Sacramento but was a late scratch and his status for this one is uncertain. Dwight Powell and Maxi Kleber have picked up the slack in the frontcourt without him.<\/p>\n Luka Doncic continues to do Luka Doncic things, averaging 28.8 points, 9.8 rebounds and nine assists on the season. Dallas are surprisingly better on the road (14-5) than at home (12-10) this season.<\/p>\n The Blazers won this matchup in Dallas back in October 121-119.<\/p>\n Tip<\/strong>: Portland to win @ $3.60<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Chicago Bulls at Philadelphia 76ers (ESPN) The Bulls and Sixers open the ESPN\u2019s Saturday double-header at the Wellls Fargo Centre (all times AEST). After a sluggish start to the season Chicago were finally starting to get it together to make a push towards the playoffs, but did recently drop six […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":14801,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[706],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12212","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nba"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12212","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12212"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12212\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16302,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12212\/revisions\/16302"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/14801"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12212"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12212"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/prdextblog01.bluebet.com.au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12212"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Miami Heat at OKC Thunder<\/a><\/h3>\n
Portland Trail Blazers at Dallas Mavericks (ESPN)<\/strong><\/a><\/h3>\n