Trail Blazers Vs Bulls: Blazers Head to Windy City to Start Five-Game Road Trip
The Portland Trail Blazers travel to Chicago to begin a five-game road trip, a matchup billed as trail blazers vs bulls that pits a club on the move against a franchise remade at the deadline. The game matters because the Bulls, sellers at the trade deadline, arrive on a long skid while Portland’s recent form and personnel shifts set up a clash of styles on Thursday, Feb. 26.
Trail Blazers Vs Bulls: Road trip kick-off and recent form
The Blazers start a five-game road trip in Chicago tonight after alternating losses and wins in their last five games since a three-game winning streak. Chicago, meanwhile, has lost 10 games in a row and 13 of its last 14, and is searching for an end to that stretch when it hosts Portland on Thursday night. Portland nearly dropped a game to the zombie Memphis Grizzlies mere weeks ago, illustrating how any opponent still has the capacity to challenge the Blazers.
Bulls' 'Oops, All Guards!' deadline shuffle and roster haul
Chicago’s front office embraced what has been described as Neil Olshey’s revolutionary “Oops, All Guards!” team-building philosophy, taking back a guard in nearly every trade it made at the deadline. Notable acquisitions include recent lottery-pick point guard Rob Dillingham, slightly less recent lottery-pick guard Jaden Ivey, much less recent lottery-pick guard Collin Sexton, and Blazers legend Anfernee Simons. The Bulls were sellers at the trade deadline and are feeling the effects now; oddsmakers have the Bulls listed as home underdogs on Thursday night at the best betting sites.
Roster oddities: Dieng, Simons, Buzelis and the churn
The Bulls briefly retained young forward Ousmane Dieng but traded him to the Bucks upon discovering he was taller than 6-foot-5. The roster reads as a motley crew of holdovers and temporary employees, a smorgasbord of young talent whose skillsets are often incongruent, allowing individuals to shine without threatening to win consistently. Anfernee Simons may miss the rest of the season with a fractured left wrist; in his limited appearances he was averaging over 14 shot attempts a game. Second-year forward Matas Buzelis dropped 32 points in 33 minutes in a loss against the Hornets, evidence the Bulls still possess pieces that can score at a high level even amid the roster upheaval. Gone, the piece argues, are the era of 10-day contracts and nepotism signings (miss you, Keljin).
Donovan Clingan’s ascension and questionable status
This is Donovan Clingan’s team now; the last week of Blazers basketball has been defined by Clingan’s ascension into what appears to be the franchise’s long-term center. Over his last 10 games, Donovan is posting averages of 15 points, 13. 5 rebounds, 3 assists and 2. 3 blocks on 55% shooting and 46. 3% from three, and the eye test more than affirms those statistics. Against the Bulls, whose only healthy centers may be Nick Richards and Lachlan Olbrich, Clingan figures to be a focal point—if he’s able to go tonight. Shortly before publish time, the Blazers announced the big man is questionable with an illness. The matchup of Clingan against Richards and Olbrich will be central to the first meeting after the trade period reshaped both rosters; the trail blazers vs bulls pairing now carries a fresh set of storylines because of those moves.
Matchup mechanics: size, rim attempts and three-point questions
Beyond Clingan, the Blazers possess more size and talent than the Bulls across most positions. The recurring question for Portland is whether they can hit enough three-pointers to win; given Chicago’s stark lack of size, a sounder strategy against these Bulls may be more rim attempts. The Blazers rarely deviate from a Moneyball-esque strategy of getting more possessions and shooting more threes. Both teams run similarly optimized offensive schemes: Billy Donovan prefers rim attempts, three-point attempts, or no attempt at all. The available context ends mid-sentence with the fragment "The Bulls are 2nd in the" and is unclear in the provided context.
Betting angles and Josh Giddey prop notes
The Bulls did win the first meeting, 122-121 in Portland back in November, but these are two different teams three months later due to trades and injuries. Josh Giddey returned from injury after the All-Star break and has made five 3-pointers in four games since then; all five of those 3s came in one game against the Pistons. Outside of that 5-for-8 performance, he went 0 for 2, 0 for 3 and 0 for 2, and he has multiple 3-pointers in only two of his last 11 games overall. The writer of the preview says they will fade Giddey tonight and hopes he doesn’t get hot—one supporting number in play: the Blazers allow 3. 1 3-pointers per game to point guards.
Portland should be favored to win on paper, but the preview cautions that if it looks like a trap game, walks like a trap game and quacks like a trap game, then it’s a trap game.
