The Sacramento Kings (22-37) head to the Windy City Wednesday to play the Chicago Bulls (37-21). Tip-off at United Center is scheduled for 8 p.m. ET. Below, we look at the Kings vs. Bulls odds and lines, and make our expert NBA picks, predictions and bets.
Sactown lost to the Nets 109-85 in Brooklyn Monday as a 2-point road favorite. The Kings are 4-3 straight up (SU) 5-2 against the spread (ATS) over the past two weeks.
Chicago won its fourth consecutive game Monday by storming past the San Antonio Spurs 120-109, covering as a 3-point home favorite. The Bulls are 5-3 SU and ATS in the last 14 days.
Kings at Bulls odds, spread and lines
Odds provided by Tipico Sportsbook; access USA TODAY Sports Scores and Sports Betting Odds hub for a full list. Lines last updated at 11:55 a.m. ET.
- Money line: Kings +175 (bet $100 to win $175) | Bulls -220 (bet $220 to win $100)
- Against the spread: Kings +5.5 (-115) | Bulls -5.5 (-107)
- Over/Under: 232.5 (O: -112 | U: -108)
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Kings at Bulls key injuries
Kings
- None
Bulls
- PG Lonzo Ball (knee) out
- SG Alex Caruso (wrist) out
- SF Zach LaVine (knee) out
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Kings at Bulls odds, lines, picks and predictions
Prediction
Bulls 121, Kings 108
Money line
PASS.
Even though Chicago should win this game handily, the Bulls (-220) are a little too steep. However, Chicago lights up bad teams and Sactown is a bad team (ranked 26th in net rating).
The Bulls are 11-1 SU versus bottom-10 teams with a plus-11.5 adjusted net rating and plus-2.0 ATS margin according to CleaningTheGlass.com (CTG).
Against the spread
BET the BULLS -5.5 (-107) for 1 unit.
The bottom line is Chicago has the highest shooting percentage in the NBA and Sactown has the second-worst shooting percentage.
The Bulls are missing several key players but I don’t see that being an issue against a Kings team that even I could score 20 points on.
More importantly, Chicago All-Star wing DeMar DeRozan has stepped up since several Bulls teammates have been sidelined with injuries and is playing the best basketball of his career. DeRozan is averaging 35.6 points on 56.9% shooting with 6.1 rebounds, 5.8 assists and a plus-5 net rating in nine games in February.
Chicago is also 16-7 ATS as a home favorite, 11-4 ATS at home versus teams with a losing record and 6-1 ATS when laying 5-7 points.
Finally, sharp money is betting the Kings, which is making Chicago cheaper. Since I cannot reverse engineer the line movement, I’ll happily BET the BULLS -5.5 (-107).
Over/Under
PASS.
There’s no way I can bet Under 232.5 (-108) considering how poorly Sacramento plays defense and how lethal Chicago can be on offense. Sactown is 5-1 O/U in the last six games and Chicago is 7-3 O/U in the last 10 games.
But, my numbers say the Kings-Bulls fall short of the total and most of the market will be betting the Over based on the O/U trends above.
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