Bulls try to win, Sixers try to lose, who will be successful?

[Thanks to Tom for today's game preview -yfbb]

The Bulls return to the United Center tonight from their trip to Washington likely relieved that they don’t play the Wizards again until April 5th after 2 losses to the Wiz in their last 3 games. Their opponent tonight, the SIxers would seem to be a much easier win given their front office’s seeming predisposition towards tanking. However the Sixers are actually 5-5 in their last 10, with wins over Portland, Denver and the Bobcats (admittedly the last one is not that impressive).

In any case the Bulls should expect a heavy helping of Evan Turner tonight. Not only is he the Sixers leading scorer (18 ppg), he also lead the Sixers in minutes and is reportedly being shopped giving the Sixers all the more reason to try to get him going. Perhaps the matchup that I am looking forward to the most however is the Michael Carter-Williams vs. DJ Augustin massive point guard vs tiny point guard extravaganza that should ensue sometime halfway through the 1st quarter.

The interior play should also present some interesting matchups as the Sixers primary big men, Thaddeus Young and Spencer Hawes are more perimeter oriented than the Noah-Taj-Boozr trio. Overall I would expect the Bulls to get a heavy advantage on the boards, while the Sixers will try to light up our perimeter defense with a barrage of 3s.

In terms of playoff spot this game would appear rather insignificant; with a win the Bulls will still be a game behind the Wiz for the 5th seed, while a loss would still leave them 2 games ahead of 7 seed Brooklyn (thats right! Brooklyn has managed to get back in the conversation, what are the odds?).