With the NBA 2022–2023 The basketball betting business is booming now that the regular season is over. For the rest of the postseason, CBS Sports will offer daily picks. For every game leading up to the NBA Finals, Sam Quinn will predict at least one outcome. Caesars Sportsbook is the source of all odds.
Defense is a must in this game, period. The postseason struggles of DeMar DeRozan are well known in Toronto. Field goal percentage for his career falls from 46.8% in the regular season to 41.8% in the postseason. When playing Toronto, this poses a particular challenge because the Raptors can use more fullbacks against him than any other club in the playoff field. This season, DeRozan averaged just 14 points per game when playing the Raptors.
Toronto’s offense, meanwhile, isn’t any better. According to Cleaning the Glass, the Raptors are 25th in the NBA in half-court points scored per game. Turnovers and transition are the foundation of your attack. The Bulls make the seventh-least money per game in the NBA, and those points aren’t as easy to come by in the postseason.
The Bulls (first) and Raptors (sixth) are two of the NBA’s strongest defenses as of the close, and when you combine those factors, you have a game that should score relatively few points. Chicago ranks 24th offensively for the season. The Thunder exerted every effort to withdraw from the play-in race at the track. In crucial games, they utilized a 12-man rotation. In games against the Hornets and pacers and missed most of their best players.
