Tip-off: Thursday, 8:05 p.m. ET
Line: New York -2.5, Total: 203.0

The Bulls will be hoping to earn a big road victory over a Knicks team that has lost 12 of its past 15 games heading into Thursday.

The Bulls have lost two straight games coming into this meeting with the Knicks, but they have still won three of their past five and have covered in four of those contests. This team just isn’t healthy at the moment, and that is a big reason that they have shot worse than 41% from the floor in the past three games. The Bulls have also allowed their opponents to shoot better than 50% from the floor in each of the past two. Chicago does, however, have a gift of a matchup on Thursday. The Bulls get to face the Knicks, who have lost nine of their past 10 games. New York hit rock bottom on Wednesday as well, losing 98-97 against a lowly Philadelphia squad. That loss was preceded by a 110-96 home beat down at the hands of New Orleans. The Knicks did, however, play well in their only meeting with the Bulls this season. They defeated Chicago 117-104 as a 7.5-point road underdog on Nov. 4, and the Bulls will be without both SF Jimmy Butler (Illness) and PF Nikola Mirotic (Illness) in this game. One trend that favors Chicago when looking at this game is that New York is 1-11 ATS when playing its fifth game in seven days over the past three seasons. The Knicks are, however, an impressive 9-0 ATS in home games after a division game over the past two seasons.

The Bulls are struggling right now, and it won’t be easy to win without SF Jimmy Butler (25.0 PPG, 6.7 RPG, 4.6 APG, 1.7 SPG) and PF Nikola Mirotic (9.5 PPG, 5.5 RPG) on Thursday. With Butler out, SG Dwyane Wade (18.7 PPG, 4.1 RPG, 3.8 APG, 1.4 BPG) will have to step up and perform at a high level in this one. This is the type of game Wade thrives in, as he has always played well under the bright lights of Madison Square Garden. The Knicks have one of the worst defenses in the league, as well. That should help Wade, who will likely attack the basket often in this one. Another guy that will need to step it up in this game is SF Doug McDermott (10.0 PPG, 3.1 RPG). McDermott is a phenomenal scorer, but he really struggled with Butler and Mirotic out last game. McDermott started but only had four points on 2-of-11 shooting in the loss to Washington on Tuesday. That can’t be the case on Thursday, as Chicago is counting on him to score at least 15 in this game. Two other guys to keep an eye on in this one are PG Rajon Rondo (7.4 PPG, 7.1 APG, 6.4 RPG, 1.4 SPG) and SG Denzel Valentine (3.4 PPG). The two of them combined to score 31 points off the bench against the Wizards on Wednesday and another performance like that would certainly be welcome against the Knicks.

New York is coming off of a deflating loss at the buzzer against Philadelphia on Wednesday, and the Knicks must find a way to put that behind them. Losing to a Bulls team without Butler would be absolutely unacceptable, so they must come ready to play on Thursday. One guy that needs to be better moving forward is PF Kristaps Porzingis (19.4 PPG, 7.5 RPG, 2.0 BPG). Porzingis has scored just 16 points total on 6-of-23 shooting from the floor and 1-for-10 shooting from three over the past two games. He airballed a three that would have put the Knicks up four with under 10 seconds to play on Wednesday, and that ultimately lost New York the game. The Knicks almost definitely would have won had he even hit the rim, as more time would have run off the clock and the team would have been able to get back on defense. New York did receive some excellent play from SF Carmelo Anthony (22.1 PPG, 6.0 RPG, 3.1 APG), PG Derrick Rose (17.5 PPG, 4.4 APG, 3.9 RPG) and C Joakim Noah (5.5 PPG, 8.7 RPG) in that loss on Wednesday, though. Anthony and Rose combined to score 53 on 22-of-41 shooting from the floor, and Noah had seven points and six boards in only 20 minuets of action. If the three of them can repeat that performance then the Knicks should win this one. Rose and Noah will certainly have a lot of energy for this game, as they’ll want to beat their former team once again.