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SteemSports presents: Chicago Bulls vs New York Knicks

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Game Preview

The New York Knicks will host Chicago Bulls tonight and will be hoping to get that precious win. There are no better chances to beat their direct opponents for the play-offs spot than today. All of the Knicks players are ready to play, Derrick Rose will want to show the Bulls that he can still move, and the two main Bulls guys, Wade and Butler will be missing this game. If the Knicks will manage to waste this opportunity, I will officially bury their season in my mind. So yeah, this game is pretty crucial for the Knicks.

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Chicago Bulls

Last time I predicted that the Bulls will be able to beat Thunder. They lost by 15 points. Apparently, I did not take into account how terrible they are at defending against big guys. If Steve Adams scored 22 points, I am afraid to think what Porzingis will do to the Bulls.

If I told you that Knicks are living through the hellish time then nothing better could be said about Bulls as well. They have lost their last 2 games, including the loss to the direct opponent for the play-offs spot in the Eastern Conference - Washington Wizards. So they have just dropped to the 9th spot in the standings and that means that if the season would end today, Bulls would be out of the Championship chase. I don't think that fans would excuse this kind of blunder.

This means the Bulls will need to start winning. However, it will be damn hard to win without Jimmy Butler and Dwayne Wade on the floor. Wade is feeling the overload and Butler just caught some kind of illness. That illness might be unhappiness, though, as there are a lot of rumors of Butler being traded away. I won't lie - it would be a massive thing.

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Role players will be fighting the Knicks

Last time I wrote about the young, the old and the injured - Butler, Wade, and Rondo. Well, ironically, but the only player, who will be able to play, out of those 3 will be the injured - Rajan Rondo. Wade will miss the game due to overload and Butler has an illness.

How bad is the loss against Knicks? Well... Butler and Wade together scores 44 points per game, get 11 boards, and adds 8.5 assists. That is basically half of the team.

So role players will have to step up. I doubt that Rondo can actually be better in scoring points, so I predict him to keep his good numbers in rebounds and assists, but I would not expect a lot of help from him when it comes to making points. Who else is capable?

I think that Gibson, Mirotic or Lopez will become the guys to look for when it comes to scoring against Knicks. I am mostly familiar with Nikola Mirotic, whom I love to watch playing with the Spain International. Being a big guy, Mirotic can still shoot three-pointers (especially from the side of the court), drive to the basket, draw contact, and find open men. I really hope that he will do just that, because otherwise, even the Knicks will have no problems against this Bulls team.

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New York Knicks

Well, at this very moment I cannot say anything good about Knicks team. They are playing just awful after the Christmas period. I don't know what really happened, but I guess the Christmas dinner for the Knicks team was just a little too fulfilling... Players still cannot move properly.

The Knicks defense sucks big time as they allowed at least 100 points in 9 consecutive games since Christmas. At the moment I am writing this review, Knicks are struggling against 76ers - one of the top 3 worst teams in the whole NBA. Apart from this game, they only won once in the last 9 games... So yeah, New York must be a really religious place, which celebrates Jesus birthday for just a little too long. Oh - they just lost the game to the 76ers by one point. Classic act.

On a serious note, I think Knicks are just wearing off. They would totally do with a good break to recover at the moment as their leaders Anthony and Rose are not the youngsters anymore. Also, The Knicks team is having some serious problems in getting their role players to perform. For example, Mindaugas Kuzminskas is using his time really well, but the coach still shows no trust in this man. And the Knicks keep losing.

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Only positive note at this moment - Kristaps Porzingis

Yes, a lot would argue that the leader of the Knicks team is Carmelo Anthony. I might agree that he still thinks that he is a leader. He even acts like one. However, he is not anymore. The sooner the whole Knicks organization understands it, the better because Carmelo is not on the level to be a leader of a good team. However, Kristaps Porzingis might be.

Yes, 21-year-old Latvian still needs a lot of experience to be a true leader, but he is showing all the signs of being able to do it. 7"3 (2.21m) big guy who is shooting three-pointers with 41 percent accuracy is extremely rare and valuable. If we add his 8 boards, 20 points, and quality defense - we get a superstar. Knicks fans are getting crazy over Porzingis and they should be. This man has everything to carry Knicks team to the victories if the team will let him.

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Prediction

As I said, all the circumstances are just too perfect for Knicks to loose. They will be angry after this terrible month; Bulls will miss their two main guys, and I believe that fans will still come to support the team and put some extra pressure on the Bulls. Taking it all into account I predict, 116-102 Knicks victory

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Presenter: @cryptoiskey

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Writer: @writingamigo

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Game Starts:

January 12th, 8PM/5PM ETPT

January 13th 1AM UTC