NBA Playoff Betting – (6) Bucks at (3) Bulls (Game 5)

Milwaukee Bucks at Chicago Bulls (-8.5, 187.5 o/u)

With their win on Saturday, the Milwaukee Bucks (1-3, 0-2 away) kept their season alive for at least one more game. The Bucks will look to stave off elimination once again tonight when their series with the Chicago Bulls (3-1, 2-0 home) shifts back to the United Center (8:00 PM Eastern).

Milwaukee’s 92-90 win in Game 4 came in thrilling fashion; tied at 90 with under two seconds to play, Jerryd Bayless slipped away from Derrick Rose under the hoop and took an inbounds pass for an easy layup as time expired.

Still down 3-1 in the series, Bucks coach Jason Kidd knows his young squad still has a lot of work left to do.

“As a whole we have a long ways to go,” said Kidd. “But I thought with this being a character game, the group in that locker room showed a lot of character by finding a way to get a win.”

Despite getting 33 points from Jimmy Butler, who was 12/17 from the field, Chicago couldn’t close out the series. Turnovers were a big part of the equation, with the Bulls committing 26 on the night versus just 13 for the Bucks.

Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau realizes his team will have to cut down on the mistakes if they’re going to close out the upstart Bucks.

“We are going to have to be a lot stronger with the ball,” Thibodeau told the team’s official website. “They are coming through us. We are going to have to hold our ground.”

In the trends, Chicago has won eight of the last ten in the series and has covered the spread in seven; however, the Bucks have covered the last two and are playing much improved basketball over the last couple games.

My Pick: Bucks +8.5.

(Photo credit: Keith Allison from Owings Mills, USA (Derrick Rose) [CC BY-SA 2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Photo has been cropped.)