Matt Rivers says your free pick winner for Monday is on the Bulls -1 at Portland.

Brandon Roy and the Trail Blazers are an extremely talented team that has a chance to make a nice little run this season. They have solid guard play along with bigs assuming Greg Oden can stay healthy. But the road is never easy and this price just seems a little too cheap to me on the home Bulls.

Derrick Rose is a baller and the addition of Carlos Boozer makes Chicago into a quality team from a squad that was as mediocre as they come. I don’t think Chicago overall is as good as Portland but the Blazers are halfway across the country and in the midst of this four game road trip after playing in New York on Saturday. That in itself makes it a difficult situation for the perfect and undefeated 3-0 Blazers to remain that.

There’s no real rocket science with this pick. Rose, Boozer and Joakim Noah should be jacked up for their home opener and there is a chance that the visitors from Portland could be a little tired, even if it’s early on in the season. Plus Portland is still somewhat young and not exactly an upper echelon team that can be trusted just yet in a road spot like this.

We should be a hard fought competitive game between a pair of quality teams and in the end I’ll side with the home Bulls.

For more information: That’s right, six in a row now and counting after the 300,000* Dolphins made me a winner once again. It doesn’t get much easier than Iowa and Oregon on Saturday and I’m feeling really great right after yet another rock solid weekend and ready to absolutely bury that Crookie one more time here on Monday.

All I do is win and if you don’t ride the hot hand than I’m not sure what anybody can do for you. Click now to purchase