Cleveland Cavaliers vs. Chicago Bulls Game 3 Odds Preview, Matchup Stats

The Chicago Bulls have to be somewhat happy to be heading home to the United Center for Friday’s Game 3 with a split in their second-round playoff series against the Cleveland Cavaliers.

However, the Bulls had to be disappointed by their performance in a 106-91 loss to Cleveland in Game 2 Wednesday. They trailed mostly by double digits and failed to cover the spread as 5.5-point road underdogs on the NBA betting lines after upsetting the Cavaliers as 4.5-point dogs Monday in an impressive 99-92 Game 1 victory.

Defensively, Chicago played its worst game since beating the Milwaukee Bucks 113-106 in overtime in Game 3 of its first-round playoff series. That was the only other time the total went over for bettors in the previous six postseason games for the Bulls, according to the OddsShark NBA Database.

Cleveland matched Milwaukee’s 106 points in Game 2, which was just enough to help push the total over the closing number of 194.5. The total also went over for the first time in five playoff games for the Cavs, who did not score more than 103 points in their previous four games.

Cleveland star LeBron James bounced back nicely from a subpar series opener by scoring a game-high 33 points to go along with eight rebounds and five assists in Game 2. James was aggressive from the start en route to making 13 of 29 shots from the field and seven of nine shots from the free-throw line following a Game 1 effort that saw him total 19 points and 15 rebounds.

The Cavs also inserted power forward Tristan Thompson into the starting lineup for the injured Kevin Love, and he responded with a game-high 12 boards, with six coming on the offensive end.

Iman Shumpert had another solid game starting at shooting guard for the suspended J.R. Smith as well, scoring 15 points, 12 of which came on four three-pointers. Smith is expected to make his series debut in the Cavaliers vs. Bulls betting matchup Friday after missing the first two games for striking Jae Crowder of the Boston Celtics in Game 4 of the first round.

Chicago will need more from recently named NBA Most Improved Player Jimmy Butler back home, as he did not shoot well in either of the first two games. Butler has converted just 12 of 26 shots from the field against Cleveland after making at least half of his shots in four of the six games he played against the Bucks.