NEWSLETTER
The Chicago Bulls are officially locked into the 10 seed.
The Bulls originally had a chance to move as high as the 8 seed coming into the week, but due to back-to-back losses to the Hawks and Bucks, they are now set with two games left to go. With that being the case, we now know that they will compete in the Play-In Tournament game scheduled for April 12. Who they will face, however, remains up in the air.
Toronto currently sits in the 9 seed after a loss to the Boston Celtics earlier tonight. Meanwhile, the Atlanta Hawks took down the Washington Wizards, placing them one game ahead of Toronto in the 8 seed. For the two to swap, the Hawks would have to lose each of their next two games while the Raptors win out. Even if the two ended with the same record, the Hawks would have the higher seed due to the tiebreaker advantage.
With all of that being the case, it is certainly most likely that the Bulls have to travel to Toronto for their Play-In game next week. Then, if they manage to pull out the victory, they would have to travel to either Atlanta or Miami to try to grab one more win and sneak into the 8 seed.
A couple of weeks back we ranked the Bulls’ possible Play-In opponents, and I easily picked the Raptors as their toughest foe. Not only are they 26-14 in their home arena, but they have taken care of the Bulls in two of their three meetings this year. While their offense has struggled at times to get into a rhythm, they have the kind of length, physicality, and discipline that can give this Bulls team some serious trouble.
We can talk way more about that when the time comes, though. All I hope now is that the Bulls take these next two games to give Nikola Vucevic, DeMar DeRozan, and Zach LaVine some much-needed rest before the big game.
