Bulls and Nuggets need wins

The NBA teams that reside in Windy City and Rocky Mountains are feeling the pinch with seven days left in the regular season. The Chicago Bulls were once comfortably in the playoff picture, second in the Central Division and marching merrily along as a young team on the rise. But even in the Eastern Conference, 10-game losing streaks can really impact your position in the standings (unless you’re New Jersey) and the Bulls season imploded like another Illinois political scandal.

Chicago (37-40, 39-36-2 ATS) fell below motoring Milwaukee in the division and all the way out of the top eight slots in the East, trailing Toronto by one game, despite coming back to win six of last nine SU and ATS.

Chicago desperately wants to sign Dwayne Wade as max free agent, which is why they traded John Salmons to the Bucks, taking on the expiring contracts of Hakim Warrick and Joe Alexander. While this vision might work towards the future, it did nothing for Chicago in the present.

Since the Feb. 18 trade, Da Bulls are 10-14 and 13-11 ATS with Salmons up the road on I-94 in Sudsville. Milwaukee, well a consistent NBA guard who can score in the backcourt has elevated the Bucks to 19-6, 18-5-2 ATS since that fateful day.

Chicago has to face Cleveland (61-17, 38-38-2 ATS) next, just the best and deepest team in the NBA. The one edge the Bulls could have is the Cavaliers have set the cruise control and are resting various players until the regular season is finished.

Cleveland tried to help Chicago, taking down Toronto 113-101 as 5.5-points favorites, but the wully-Bullies couldn’t handle a depleted Bucks squad and lost by five at United Center. The Cavs are 24-11-1 ATS after a double digit triumph, while Chicago is 6-0 ATS after a SU defeat.

The Bulls are 2.5-point favorites and have covered four of last five in Chi-Town against LeBron and the fellas and this Central showdown is on TNT which starts a bit after 8:00 Eastern.

Nuggets not playing tasty basketball

Denver (51-27, 34-39-5 ATS) has gone from sole possession division leader and second seed in the West to fifth in the conference.

The Nuggets have had their fair share of frightful opponents, yet that doesn’t explain their 6-6 record and frigid 2-9-1 ATS spread mark in last 12 contests.

The single common denominator is the absence of George Karl who last attended a game on March 16. While Karl is above average coach, he’s not thought of as elite, nonetheless his voice it seems is the one Denver players responds to.

According to the Denver Post, Karl has lost 25 pounds, has difficulty speaking and may need to be fed through a tube for up to six more months, that doesn’t sound like person that could be returning to the bench anytime in the near future sadly.

That leaves it up to the team leaders like Carmelo Anthony and Chauncey Billups to be role models and max their abilities for the Nuggets to be victorious.

Denver hosts the Los Angeles Lakers (55-22, 32-43-2 ATS) after facing Oklahoma City last night. The Nuggets are 32-6 at the Pepsi Center (18-19-1 ATS), winning by 9.6 points per game, which is the third best home record in the NBA. The Lakers are 22-16 (16-22-1 ATS) on the road and Denver is 7-0 ATS against clubs with winning visitor’s record and Bookmaker.com has them as two-point favorites with total of 204.

One extra large negative for Carmelo’s crew is recent 1-7-1 ATS mark when playing with no rest and they are 8-2 UNDER, as offense has been stalling with Kenyon Martin and Chris Anderson on the sidelines.

To move back up in the standings, Denver needs this contest which starts at approximately 10:35 Eastern and the other three remaining games on the schedule to improve conference position for the playoffs.