The season will end on Wednesday night in the Eastern Conference play-in tournament for the loser between No. 10 seed Atlanta and No. 9 Chicago, with the Bulls as short home favorites. The winner earns a date on Friday at the 7 vs. 8 loser for the East’s final playoff spot and a first-round matchup with NBA-best Boston.

Atlanta Hawks vs. Chicago Bulls 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament Game Info

Do or die. Wednesday. 8:30 pm CT. ESPN.@BMO_US | #SeeRed pic.twitter.com/JL9EL1g0OV

— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) April 15, 2024

• When: Wednesday, April 17th, 2024, 9:30 PM ET
• Where: United Center, Chicago, IL
• TV: ESPN
• Radio: 92.9 “The Game” WZGC FM (Hawks) // 670 The Score AM (Bulls)
• Stream: NBA League Pass
• NBA Odds: Hawks (+3) // Bulls (-3)

Why bet on the Atlanta Hawks?

Atlanta is in the play-in tournament for a third straight year. In 2022, it was the No. 9 seed and beat No. 10 Charlotte and then No. 8 Cleveland to advance to the East playoffs. Last year, the Hawks were the No. 8 seed and advanced with an upset of No. 7 Miami. Chicago was 2-1 vs. Atlanta this season.

The Hawks enter this game with zero momentum, as they lost a sixth straight game on Sunday, 157-115 at Indiana. The 157 points matched the Pacers’ highest-scoring game since they joined the NBA in 1976. Mouhamed Gueye added 19 points and Bogdan Bogdanovic 18 for the Hawks, who trailed 125-93 at the end of the third quarter and never threatened in the fourth.

Atlanta held out starting center Clint Capela for rest. Three other rotation players who average a combined 39.9 points, Jalen Johnson (sprained ankle), Saddiq Bey (torn knee ligament) and Onyeka Okongwu (sprained toe), sat out due to injury. Capela will play Tuesday, but the others are all out long term.

“That’s just something, as I’ve said, really, it’s no different from throughout the course of the year,” coach Quin Snyder said. “The guys that you do have, they have to be ready to go and have to play at a high level, and you can’t lament those things. So we’ll be ready.”

While the Hawks can score with anyone, they allowed 118.4 points per 100 possessions this season, a bottom-five number in the NBA. That number was down to 114.9 since the All-Star break. However, all but three of those games were without All-Star Trae Young, the offensive-minded guard who returned last week after missing 23 games with an injured finger.

In three games against the Bulls this season, Atlanta allowed 118.3 points per contest, and the 136 points Chicago scored on Feb. 12 were the most the team has scored all season. Atlanta needs the late-season defense to show up — with Young’s shooting on the other end — to have a chance. In the Hawks’ only win over the Bulls this season, they shot 19-for-40 from distance.

Why bet on the Chicago Bulls?

Philadelphia is in the play-in tournament for the first time and surely would have been among the East’s top seeds if star center Joel Embiid, the 2023 NBA MVP, hadn’t been limited to just 39 games due to injury.

Embiid missed Sunday’s regular-season finale as the Sixers extended their NBA-best winning streak to eight with a blowout of Brooklyn, but he will play Tuesday. After Embiid tweaked his left knee last Friday against the Orlando Magic, Coach Nick Nurse said he has zero concerns that the reigning MVP will lose his aggressiveness for fear of reinjuring the knee.

That’s a good thing for the Sixers, who would have a tough time defeating the Heat without the 7-foot-2, 280-pounder. Embiid is getting back to his normal dominant self, averaging 30.4 points, 9.2 rebounds, 5.2 assists, 1.4 steals, and 1.2 blocks in 30.5 minutes over the five games since his return. This season, he had 26 games with at least 30 points and 10 rebounds, tied for second in the NBA. And that’s with missing more than half the year.

The Sixers might have one advantage in the series, and that’s Kyle Lowry, who was released by the Heat earlier this season and signed with his hometown club. Lowry had been with the Heat for 2.5 seasons before joining Philadelphia back in February. He knows how Miami operates, and he was with the Heat on their run from the play-in to the finals in 2023.

“Certainly, in this, he knows this team very well,” Coach Nick Nurse said. “He’s played for them, right? So he knows the personnel, and he knows some inner workings of things that he thinks they might do. We’ve been talking about those.”

Hawks vs. Bulls Betting Trends

• Atlanta is 1-6 ATS in the last 7 games.
• Hawks are 0-6 SU in its last 6 games.
• The total went over in 12 of Atlanta’s last 15 games.
• Chicago is 4-2 ATS in the last 6 games.
• Bulls are 13-7 SU in its last 20 games when playing as the favorite.
• The total went over in 4 of Chicago’s last 5 games.

Hawks vs. Bulls 2024 NBA Play-In Tournament Game Prediction

The Bulls take the win on Wednesday night and advance into the next round of the Play-In Tournament.

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