Chicago Bulls vs Houston Rockets Prediction & Betting Tips - NBA

Prediction published on 10/01/2024, 07:41  by Joseph King | Modified on 10/01/2024 at 07:44 in NBA Predictions

The East’s ninth-placed Chicago Bulls play host to the West’s eighth-place Houston Rockets when the two teams meet on Wednesday night in the NBA. Chicago is sporting a 17-21 record, seeing them holding on to one of the play-in spots at the moment. They trail the eighth-place Magic by 4.5 games as they fight to get back to .500 on the season. Things certainly haven’t gone the way that the Bulls would have expected since getting their ‘big three’ together in 2021. A sixth-place finish in 2020/21 was followed up by a disappointing 40-42, 10th-place finish last season. They now look on the cusp of a complete blow-up with trade rumors circulating around the team’s trio of LaVine, DeRozan and Vucevic. The Bulls have put together a decent run recently, winning their last two straight following a 119-112 overtime victory over the Hornets. It also marked the second straight game that Zach LaVine played in after an extended spell on the sidelines with injury.

Houston has been a pleasant surprise this season with the team buying into coach Ime Udoka’s hard-nose defensive approach. The Rockets rank second in the NBA in terms of opponent points allowed at 110.2 and rank sixth in adjusted defensive rating. The struggle for this Rockets team is their performances on the road compared to at home. At the Toyota Center, Houston has been superb. They boast a 15-6 home record and are allowing just 106.2 points per game. On the road, however, things have fallen apart. Houston is just 3-11 on their travels this season and see their opponent points per game balloon almost 10 points up to 116.1. This was on full display in their last two appearances where they beat the Bucks at home before losing 120-113 to the Heat in South Beach. This is the second of a lengthy six-game road trip for the visitors.