Pick against the spread, over/under for Hawks vs. Bulls on Wednesday

The Chicago Bulls (21-10) will play host to the Atlanta Hawks (15-18) at United Center on Wednesday night, with tipoff set for 8:00 p.m. ET. The Bulls are coming off their fourth-straight win after defeating the Hawks 130-118 in the first of their back-to-back series on Monday. Now they’ll return home to host Atlanta in hopes of extending their winning streak to five.

The Bulls are favored by eight points at home, at -365 on the moneyline. The Hawks are at +280 and the point total is set at 222.5.

The Hawks are basically running a skeleton crew, with a whopping 13 players currently in the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols: Bogdan Bogdanovic, Sharife Cooper, Gorgui Dieng, Danilo Gallinari, Jalen Johnson, Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot, Onyeka Okungwu, Lou Williams, Delon Wright, Malik Ellison, John Collins, Kevin Huerter, and Wes Iwundu. They’ll also be without Solomon Hill (hamstring) and De’Andre Hunter (wrist).

The Bulls only have four players in protocols at the moment, with Lonzo Ball, Alfonzo McKinnie, Tony Bradley, and Ersan Ilyasova all sidelined. They’ll also be missing Alex Caruso (foot) and Patrick Williams (wrist), while Derrick Jones Jr. (hamstring) is listed as questionable.

Hawks vs. Bulls, 8:00 p.m. ET

Pick ATS: Bulls -8 (-110)

It’s almost impossible not to pick the Bulls here, with the Hawks missing so many players. Bogdan Bogdanovic, who scored 20 against Chicago on Monday, is the latest Atlanta player to enter protocols along with Malik Ellison and Gorgui Dieng. Luckily for Atlanta, Trae Young recently cleared protocols and made his return, dropping 29 points and nine assists against the Bulls on Monday. Cam Reddish will still be in the mix too, as he put up 33 points on Monday.

Still, they’ll be going up against the Eastern Conference’s second place team, who have gone 8-2 in their last 10 games and showing no signs of slowing down. The trio of DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, and Nikola Vucevic, who combined for a total of 89 points in Monday’s win, will most likely prove to be too much for the Hawks to handle again. Expect the surging Bulls to handle business at home by winning and covering the spread.

Over/Under: Over 222.5 (-115)

This is a situation where it’s tough not to look at the game they just played on Monday, where the total ended up being 248. The Hawks will be without Bogdanovic and Dieng, the only two guys that played Monday and have since entered into protocols, but their combined 32 points can be made up by the likes of Young and Reddish. Expect a similar result as this game should hit the over without too much trouble.

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