The Chicago Bulls clinched a spot in the NBA postseason Tuesday night — and they didn’t even have to do the heavy lifting.
The Orlando Magic provided the Bulls with a gift by losing to the Cleveland Cavaliers 117-113, clinching a spot in the play-in tournament for the Bulls, who are guaranteed to finish no worse than 10th in the Eastern Conference.
If they remain in 10th, the Bulls would play a single-elimination road game against the ninth seed, with the winner then facing the loser of the 7-8 game for a spot in the first round of the NBA playoffs.
They could climb higher in the standings, but that would require winning out — including Wednesday’s matchup with the first-place Milwaukee Bucks — or a series of losses by adjacent teams in the East standings.
The Bulls were handed another advantage when Atlanta Hawks point guard Trae Young was too sick with a non-COVID illness to travel to Chicago for Tuesday’s game.
Young was listed as out Tuesday after suffering from a stomach bug. The Hawks already were short-handed after ruling out forward De’Andre Hunter with a bone bruise and muscle strain in his left knee. But the loss of Young delivered a bigger blow to the Hawks offense, which is built around the sharpshooting guard.
“Obviously he’s a great player,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said. “I thought last game against him here we fouled him too much, but obviously he’s an elite scorer. He gets a lot of guys involved. When you lose a great player, it always hurts, but they still have a lot of pieces, a lot of personnel.”
Tuesday’s game carried the highest stakes of the final stretch of the season for the Bulls. While the Magic’s loss meant they didn’t need to win to punch their ticket to the play-in tournament, a victory would give them the tiebreaker against the Hawks and push them past the Hawks into ninth in the standings.
Young is averaging 26.2 points and 9.9 assists this season and scored 34 points against the Bulls in December in Atlanta, scorching them behind the arc with seven 3-pointers. In the teams’ last meeting in January at the United Center. Young scored 21 with 13 assists.
“He’s an important part of what we do at a lot of levels,” Hawks coach Quin Snyder said. “That said, everybody knows what an important game this is. He was trying to play today … (but) we’ve got a few other guys who’ve got to pick up the baton and hopefully he’ll be better.”
Each step up the standings provides a greater advantage for the Bulls. Earning the ninth seed — or the seventh seed through a combination of winning out and losses by the Miami Heat and Toronto Raptors — would give them home-court advantage in their first game. And if the Bulls earn the seventh or eighth seed, they could gain a position in the first round of the playoffs with a single win.
It’s easy to tumble down the rabbit hole of “what if” scenarios at this point in the season. But Donovan remains firm that the best way for the Bulls to approach this final week is to focus on what they can control — winning their last four games.
“I’m following, but I’m not on my phone checking every quarter,” Donovan said. “I think for us, really it’s about what we do and controlling what we can control. I think in a lot of ways, getting wrapped up in what everybody else is doing, there’s no control in any of that. It’s really (about) what do we have to do.”
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