[Thanks to wjb1492 for today's game preview. -Matt]

Tonight the Bulls meet their near-twins from the Western Conference, the Sacramento Kings.  Both teams have a 12-19 record for the season, both are 4-6 over the last 10, and both are coming off of a loss.  Each stands at 4th in their division and 11th in their conference.  The season scoring margins are very similar (-3.3 for the Kings to -3.5 for the Bulls).  Both teams are likely to be without key contributors tonight (Lu for the Bulls, Ron Artest, Mike Bibby and Kevin Martin for the Kings).  Heck, the Kings even have the rookie the Bulls passed over in drafting Joakim Noah, as Spencer Hawes went next to Sacramento.

Notwithstanding all those similarities, accuscore likes the Bulls in this one, with a 50% chance of a big win.  This would be great, as it would render the BG-and-the-last-possession-to-win-or-tie debate meaningless for at least one game, and (if a big enough win) possibly result in some meaningful playing time for the young guys.  Imagine, this one game could reunify the blogabull community into a single happy whole!

Anyway, pick your poison for why the Bulls are the favorites: Kings are playing the second night of a back-to-back and are 1-4 over their last 5 with a scoring margin of -8.2, while the Bulls are 3-2 under Boylan with a much improved scoring margin of +5.0.  As far as common opponents of late, both teams played @NY in the past week, with the Bulls winning by 17 and the Kings by 10.  Still, particularly considering the guys who are out with injuries, the Kings have been playing pretty darn great and are a dangerous team.  The game preview says that the Bulls have just 1 win against the Kings during the post-MJ era, so obviously the Bulls haven't played them well at all.  I'm guessing quite a few people remember the last second, 89-88 win they got in the UC last year.

I'm picking the Bulls to win, but that shouldn't surprise anyone since I always take the Bulls.  So, let's go Bulls!  (And GO SEAHAWKS!)

Blogging with the enemy:  Sactown Royalty (one of my personal favs)