The road to the NBA Cup starts Friday night, with 10 matchups across the league launching group play for the in-season tournament. The Boston Celtics are hosting the Chicago Bulls as part of the jam-packed slate of action, just four days after beating them 134-99 in the same setting.
Boston is a 14.5-point home favorite with -900 moneyline odds, while Chicago has +600 moneyline odds. The game total for the NBA Cup opener is sitting at 234.5. Here is a preview of the Eastern Conference showdown featuring odds and lines from DraftKings Sportsbook.
Chicago Bulls vs. Boston Celtics Preview
The Bulls are 1-4 through the first week-plus of the season, having lost three straight entering Friday. Bookending the blowout loss to the Celtics, though, were a four-point loss to the Washington Wizards and a six-point loss to the New York Knicks. However, both of those narrow defeats came in Chicago. The Bulls are 1-2 on the road, with the lone win coming against a Milwaukee Bucks squad still trying to navigate a post-Giannis world. Meanwhile, the two times Chicago has faced genuine contenders on the road in Boston and Toronto, those wound up as losses by 35 and 43 points. As it stands, the Bulls rank No. 16 in points per game and No. 30 in points allowed per game. They rank dead-last in the Simple Rating System and second-to-last in net rating, but notably run at the fastest pace in the NBA with 107.0 possessions per 48 minutes.
Caleb Wilson has been one of the most intriguing rookies to open the year, averaging 20.8 points, 7.0 rebounds and 3.2 stocks a night through five career games. And although the UNC product is shooting just 22.2% from 3-point land, he is jacking up an astounding 7.2 tries per game. Veteran Norman Powell is the only Bull taking more, hitting 36.6% of his 8.2 attempts per game. He has converted that into 21.6 points per game, almost completely in-line with his scoring output with the Clippers and Heat over the past two years. The other engine of Chicago’s offense, Josh Giddey, has been wildly inefficient, even if his 8.0 assists and 2.0 turnovers per game still make him an elite playmaker. After breaking out with 17.0 points per game in 2025-26, Giddey is averaging just 7.6 points per game so far this year. His 11-point outing at Boston on Monday remains his only game shooting over 45.0% from the field, but he only had four assists in that contest.
As for the Celtics, they have won three in a row since blowing a 22-point lead to the Detroit Pistons in the very first game of the NBA season. That includes a win over the reigning world champion Knicks, the blowout against the Bulls and an overtime thriller versus the Brooklyn Nets that came down to the buzzer – all at home. Boston currently boasts the No. 5 scoring offense in the league, also ranking No. 5 in offensive rating. On the other side of the floor, Joe Mazzulla’s defense ranks No. 11 in defensive rating and No. 12 in points allowed per game. Mazzulla also has the Celtics running the seventh-slowest pace in the NBA.
Jayson Tatum hit the game-winner against the Nets on Tuesday, securing not only the victory, but also a 40-point outing in the process. Tatum is now averaging 28.0 points, 8.0 assists and 6.3 rebounds per game on .430/.241/.861 shooting splits, ranking No. 8 across the league with 0.7 Win Shares and No. 14 with a 23.9 PER. Paul George has been an effective second option to open his Celtics tenure, averaging 22.3 points per game on the highest effective field goal percentage of his career. Peyton Pritchard has also slid comfortably back into his role as a sixth man, shown in his 28 points in 21 minutes and 7-for-10 shooting from deep against the Bulls on Monday. And while free agent addition Mitchell Robinson hasn’t delivered the elite rebounding numbers many expected, Jordan Walsh is bringing plenty of defensive acumen to the Celtics’ starting five. And then there’s Derrick White, whose dwindling production late last season appears to have carried over to this one. The 32-year-old is shooting just 31.8% from beyond the arc, all while his 23.6% turnover rate is more than double his career mark.
Chicago Bulls vs. Boston Celtics Pick, Best Bet
We just got a taste of how the Celtics and Bulls match up earlier this week, and it isn’t pretty for Chicago. Most of Boston’s starters didn’t even need to play more than 20 minutes in that first game, which was effectively over by the third quarter. Seeing the Celtics keep their foot on the gas and have their bench outplay the Bulls’ is honestly pretty encouraging when considering they are 14.5-point favorites on Friday. If the talent and coaching plays out as expected, Chicago doesn’t even have a clear path to a backdoor cover down the stretch. A game with more possessions should also favor the heavy favorite, giving the Celtics and their deep bench of red-hot shooters like Pritchard, Sam Hauser, Mike Conley and more a chance to pour it in once again.
