Pre-Gamin’: Clippers at Bulls (7:00 CT) – Broadcast Info, Projected Lineups, What to Watch For
The Bulls are catching the Clippers at a bad time as they come into this one winners of five of six, and the lone loss came with no Kawhi or Paul George in the lineup. Or maybe for this Bulls team, they have the Clippers right where they want them?
Game Info
Los Angeles Clippers (28-25) at Chicago Bulls (23-26) – 7:00 p.m. CT on NBC Sports Chicago (TV) and 670 The Score (Radio)
Projected Starting Lineups
Chicago Bulls
- Ayo Dosunmu
- Zach LaVine
- DeMar DeRozan
- Patrick Williams
- Nikola Vučević
Injury Report: Derrick Jones Jr PROBABLE (ankle) Javonte Green OUT (knee), Lonzo Ball OUT (knee)
Los Angeles Clippers
- Terance Mann
- Luke Kennard
- Paul George
- Kawhi Leonard
- Ivica Zubac
Injury Report: Reggie Jackson QUESTIONABLE (achilles), Marcus Morris QUESTIONABLE (ribs), Robert Covington QUESTIONABLE (personal), John Wall OUT (abdominal strain)
Odds
The Bulls come into tonight as 3-point underdogs against the Clippers at both PointsBet Illinois Sportsbook and FanDuel Illinois Sportsbook. Click on either link to sign up and pick the Bulls to cover (… or pick the opposite …)!
What to Watch For
- Does the trend of showing up against good teams continue? If so, this should be a really fun game. The Clippers come into this one hot, and (as I mentioned in the weekly preview) so are Kawhi and Paul George. The Clippers have won five of six and ascended to 4th in the Western Conference, but they are only a .500 ball club on the road. The Bulls have also won five of their last six games at the United Center and scored 120+ points in four of those wins. On paper, this is the biggest challenge for the Bulls this week. But we’ve also seen time and again that the matchup on paper doesn’t really matter.
- With the trade deadline coming up on February 9th, I’m really interested to see how the Bulls perform this week. It probably shouldn’t, but this week’s performance very well may dictate how the front office approaches the deadline. The Bulls should probably start re-tooling for the future, but a 3-0 week might change some minds.
- The Bulls 2nd Half offense improved in the win over Orlando putting up 35 points in the 3rd and 33 in the 4th. In the three games prior to that Orlando win, the Bulls hit the 30-point mark in the 3rd or 4th quarter just once.
- Over their five-game winning streak prior to their shorthanded loss to Cleveland, the Clippers shot 48.5% from three as a team. I know I preach it a lot, but defending on the perimeter and attacking the glass on defense will be vitally important in this one.
