That’s the name of the Chicago Bulls dance team, btw.  And we’re back to NBA betting action as the playoffs gets underway with four games.  We’ll take a look at a 12:00 PM Pacific/3:00 PM Eastern start time matchup between the Chicago Bulls and the Cleveland Cavaliers.  Cleveland finished with the best record in the NBA, and they’ll face the 8th place Bulls.  Shaquille O’Neal is listed as ‘probable’ but everyone else should play.

CHICAGO BULLS VS. CLEVELAND CAVALIERS:

Obviously the Cavs are a huge ‘public’ team, and that’s why they’re -11 point home favorites in this spot.   Based on their regular season performance, the Bulls have very marginal credentials for a playoff team–they couldn’t even post a season over .500 this year with a 41-41 mark.  The fact that they finished 20 games behind Cleveland also contributes to this line.  Throw in the well publicized discord between Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro and team VP John Paxson–the two nearly threw down over a dispute about the minutes Joakim Noah was playing–and Chicago sure doesn’t have the look of a serious contender.

Of course were it that simple there wouldn’t be all of those big hotels and casinos in the desert of Las Vegas.  You can always make a good case for going against a ‘public’ team like the Cavs as a big favorite simply on a contrarian basis.  Beyond that, however, there’s a number of things to like about the Bulls in this game and particularly from a pointspread standpoint.  We’ll start with the way that the teams made the playoffs–after a home win over Atlanta on April 2 the Cavs essentially phoned in the rest of the season going 1-5 SU/2-5 ATS.  They only covered two of their last 10 regular season games.  We don’t really have an issue with a team in Cleveland’s position cutting back the minutes of their starters heading into the playoffs, but we also don’t think that they can just ‘flip the switch’ and be in top form in the first game of what they hope will be a long postseason run.  Chicago, meanwhile, has been fighting and clawing just to make the playoffs.  They won 10 of their last 14 games and have covered 12 of their last 17 games.   At their best, the Bulls are capable of playing very good defense  and don’t forget that the only player with more rebounds per game in the Eastern Conference playoffs than Joakim Noah is a guy you may have heard of named Dwight Howard.

Despite their great 35-6 SU home record, the Cavs were just 17-23 against the spread and this price range–favored by 9′ to 12 points–was particularly bad for Cleveland with a 5-10 ATS mark.  And even though the Bulls haven’t done much as a team over the past few years they’ve played Cleveland tough.  Chicago is 6-6 both SU and ATS in their last 12 meetings with the Cavs.  This year, Chicago split 6 games both SU and ATS with both teams going 2-1 SU/ATS on their home floor.  We won’t call for the outright upset here, but given the Bulls’ solid play down the stretch, their competitive performance against Cleveland of late and the possibility of some ‘ring rust’ by the Cavs the conditions are very favorable for a pointspread cover.

PLAY CHICAGO +11 OVER CLEVELAND