The Oklahoma City Thunder will aim to get back on track tonight on their home floor against the Chicago Bulls. The Thunder saw a 12-game winning streak end in their last game with a 119-109 road loss to the Boston Celtics. It was a defensive struggle that saw the Celtics pull away in the second half despite 33 points from Shai Gilgeous-Alexander. Despite the loss, there is still a lot of positivity around the Thunder. They are healthiest they have been all season and are beginning to hit their stride. Oklahoma City still needs to win games to lock up the top seed in the Western Conference, as the San Antonio Spurs sit only 2 games behind in the standings. The Bulls have not had a lot of positivity surrounding their team. They are in obvious tank-mode, losing 14 of their last 19 games, and there are questions if their head coach Billy Donovan will move on in the offseason.
Chicago is coming off a 157-137 loss to the Philadelphia 76ers in a game that was never close. The Bulls allowed their opponent to shoot 55% from the field and 47% from three, including 22 made three pointers. The game displayed the consistent poor effort the Bulls have shown away from home this season. Overall they have a road record of 11-23 and they are 14-20 against the spread in those games. The last time these 2 teams played was on March 3. The Thunder won that game 116-108, but they were missing Gilgeous-Alexander, Chet Holmgren and Jalen Williams. Tonight, the Thunder are at full strength and they will be looking to build off their home crowd on a Friday night after returning home from a 5-game road trip. I believe Chicago is in trouble and could certainly lose this game by 20+ points.
Bulls vs Thunder prediction: OKC -19.5 (-110) available at time of publishing. Playable at that number.