Bulls Look To Keep Momentum Going vs. Spurs

Chicago Bulls (30-17)

The Bulls come into this game against the San Antonio Spurs riding a two game win streak. Despite all the terrible injury misfortune they have had this season, Chicago remains in a race for the top seed in the Eastern Conference. That may be a lofty goal to achieve with Lonzo Ball, Alex Caruso, Patrick Williams and Derrick Jones Jr. all out for the foreseeable future, but the team has played well in their absence. They narrowly defeated Oklahoma City and defeated the Toronto Raptors this week, making it a pretty productive stretch. However, before the OKC game, Chicago had lost five of their previous six games.

The great news for the Bulls is they were able to get Zach LaVine back fairly quickly after his left-knee injury that had fans worried he could miss significant time. He came back against the Thunder and scored 23 points, powering the Bulls to a win along with rookie Ayo Donsunmu. Can we just talk for a minute about how on earth Ayo was a second round pick? Seriously folks, what was the league thinking letting one of the premier college players and most clutch shot-taker fall that far? Blasphemy, but I'm happy they did, because now I get to watch him on my Bulls after watching him at Illinois. Dosunmu scored a career-high 24 points on personal bests of 10 made field goals and four made 3-pointers.

Now they will take on the Spurs looking to extend their win streak and keep the momentum going.

San Antonio Spurs (18-31)

Greg Popovich's team has seen better days. Gone are the days of Tim Duncan and Tony Parker, and now the team is going through the pains of the aftermath. That didn't stop them from whipping up on the Houston Rockets a few days ago though, shooting a season-best 57.4 percent and scoring 82 points in the paint, the most for any NBA team this season. The Spurs were a perfect 6-for-6 from the free-throw line, with all of those shots coming in the first half. It was a different looking team than what fans had seen for most of this season, but it really isn't shocking to see that happen against the Rockets.

They lost their most recent game against the Memphis Grizzlies, so celebrations were short lived, or whatever Pop considers a celebration. San Antonio has some playmakers on the floor, most notably Dejounte Murray, who had 19 points and 10 assists in just 24 minutes of court time in the blowout of Houston. DeMar DeRozan returns to San Antonio after spending the last few years on the team, so you best believe he will be looking to have the game of his life against his former team and coach.

The Spurs are simply not a good basketball team, and they struggle mightily when they have to face off against good competition. They rank fifth in pace, so I would expect them to put up a decent amount of points themselves against this very poor defense of the Bulls without Ball and Caruso.

Prediction

The line for this game is Bulls -2, and while that definitely seems like a fishy number, I'm going to be on it. Chicago is looking to keep pace with the best teams in the East, which means they will need every win possible against bad teams like San Antonio. They dropped the ball against Orlando just a few nights ago, and they do play much worse on the road without their star guards, but I can't envision a scenario where they let this one slip from their grasp. DeRozan must also want to stick it to his former team, so even if the rest of the squad has an off night, I feel like he is going to put them on his back if he needs to. Give me the Bulls at a very short number to win.

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