NBA betting on Thursday includes a televised game on TNT between the San Antonio Spurs and Chicago Bulls. It is the season opener for the Bulls in basketball betting while it is a tough back-to-back situation for the Spurs since they played at home last night versus New Orleans.
NBA betting is going to be a lot different this season for both the Spurs and Bulls. You might need a program to follow the new players on these teams. The Spurs made a lot of changes to their basketball betting roster as Ime Udoka, Jacque Vaughn and Drew Gooden left in free agency while three more were traded to Milwaukee for Richard Jefferson. Those three were Bruce Bowen, Fabricio Oberto and Kurt Thomas. That means the teams lost six players who had appeared in 1,336 regular season games and 241 playoff games. The Spurs have seven new players this NBA betting season though headlined by Jefferson.
Chicago made just as many changes as San Antonio heading into this NBA betting season. The Bulls have five new players. Two were acquired in the NBA betting draft (James Johnson who was the 16th overall pick and Taj Gibson who was the 26th overall pick) and three were signed as free agents (Derrick Byars, Jannero Pargo and Chris Richard). The Bulls no longer have Ben Gordon who is in Detroit this NBA betting year, Linton Johnson III, DeMarcus Nelson, Anthony Roberson and Tim Thomas. Chicago still has Derrick Rose and Luol Deng. It also looks like Joakim Noah is ready to have a big NBA betting season as is Tyrus Thomas.
San Antonio is normally a very good road team. Over the last 12 basketball betting seasons the Spurs have been the league leaders in road victories, opponent field goal percentage on the road and opponent points on the road. Their 290 road wins since the 1997-98 NBA betting season is 25 more wins than the second place Lakers. Their .431 opponent field goal percentage and 90.8 opponent points per NBA betting game are also tops in the league during that time. The Spurs have done very well in NBA betting at Chicago. San Antonio is 8-2 straight up in the last 10 meetings between the two teams in Chicago. They are also 8-2 against the number in those games. Last year the Spurs won 92-87 in Chicago. Four of the last six NBA betting meetings in Chicago between the two teams have gone under the basketball betting total.