By Sean Kennedy
Riding an unforeseen 2-0 start, the schedule provides the Sixers with its first roadblock of the season, as they take on a powerful Chicago club on the tail end of a back-to-back. Chicago is 1-1 on the season, having been taken down by the Heat on opening night, and edging the Knicks by one on an impossible Derrick Rose floater at the buzzer. Despite his late-game heroics, the Chicago star has struggled in his return from the ACL injury, shooting just 28.9% from the floor. Still, Rose looks to have his old explosion back and should provide another tough test for Michael Carter-Williams.
Traditionally, Chicago has been one of the better matchups for the Sixers among the upper-echelon teams, as they can be prone to offensive lulls and their low scoring contests can provide lesser teams more of a puncher’s chance. The Bulls struggle from the perimeter, with starters Rose, Jimmy Butler, and Luol Deng all, at best, average outside shooters. The team brought in Mike Dunleavy to help provide spacing, but he’s looked fairly limited thus far. However, I expect the Tom Thibodeau-orchestrated defense to have a field day with the Sixers’ turnover-prone offense (18.5 turnovers per game through 2 contests), leading to plenty of run-outs.
Oddsmakers are betting against the Sixers achieving their first 3-0 start since 2006-7, marking the Bulls as 8.5-point favorites in this contest. Normally, I’d say teams can usually keep things close against the offensively-limited Bulls, but Chicago had the day off yesterday while all 5 starters for Philadelphia played at least 32 minutes last night in Washington. I expect to see plenty of tired legs from Brett Brown’s boys, and plenty of difficulty scoring in half court sets against the rangy and well-disciplined Bulls defense. They may keep things close but I believe the Cinderella story that is the undefeated Sixers season ends tonight.
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