Bulls continue charge toward top seed

The Chicago Bulls have played themselves into the forefront of the NBA championship picture. And with a little help from the Boston Celtics and Miami Heat, Chicago now leads the Eastern Conference standings. The Bulls will now look to build on that lead when they host the Memphis Grizzlies on Friday night (8 pm Eastern), then make the short trip up I-94 to visit the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday (8:30 Eastern, WGN).

Also Friday night the Philadelphia 76ers, owners of the six seed in the East, visit Miami (7:30 Eastern); the New Orleans Hornets visit the Phoenix Suns in a battle between the seven and 10 seeds out West (10 Eastern); and the San Antonio Spurs, who are trying to lock up the top overall seed in the upcoming playoffs, visit the Portland Trail Blazers (10 Eastern).

Saturday's big game in the Association takes place in Salt Lake City as the Utah Jazz, in desperation mode now after falling to the 11 spot in the West, host the Dallas Mavericks (9 Eastern).

The Bulls rumbled over Atlanta on Tuesday night 114-81, their 10th win in their last 11 games. Chicago exploded out to a 72-43 halftime lead, and led by 47 at one point in the third quarter, in easily covering the spread as 4-point favorites on the oddsmaker.ag NBA betting lines. So the Bulls now lead the East by a game over the second-place Boston Celtics and 2.5 games over the third-place Miami Heat.

Memphis, meanwhile, upset the Celtics in Boston on Wednesday night 90-87, winning outright as six-point underdogs. The Grizzlies had six guys score in double-figures, and held the Celts to 42% shooting from the floor. So Memphis has won three games in a row, and owns the eight spot in the Western Conference standings, a half-game behind seventh-seeded New Orleans and two games clear of ninth-seeded Houston.

In the first meeting this season between these two teams Chicago went to Memphis in mid-January and dominated, shooting 49% from the field and holding the Grizz to 38% shooting in winning 96-84. The Bulls won outright that night as five-point underdogs, and the game played UNDER its total of 186.

Milwaukee got beat at home by lowly Sacramento on Wednesday night 97-90. So the Bucks, maybe the most disappointing team in the league this season, are now 14 games below .500, and sit mired in the nine spot in the East, three games behind eighth-seeded Indiana, with just 10 games to play.

Chicago is 3-0 both straight-up and against the oddsmaker.ag pointspreads this season vs. Milwaukee, beating the Bucks by scores of 90-77, 92-83, and 83-75. All three of those games played UNDER their totals.