Thanks to their laugher over the Wizards on Friday, combined with the Hawks pulling away from the 76ers late, the Bulls know they will host the Heat in the win-or-go-home play-in game Wednesday. The winner of that will await the loser of the Hawks-Magic game.
The Bulls don’t know how their 2024-25 season will end, but at least they know their journey.
With their 119-89 laugher against the hapless Wizards on Friday, combined with the Hawks’ win over the 76ers, the Eastern Conference play-in seedings were set.
The Bulls will host the Heat on Wednesday in the No. 9-vs.-No. 10 game with the loser eliminated and the winner needing to beat the loser of the Hawks-Magic game to make the postseason. If the Bulls can win both games, they would get the No. 8 seed and face the top-seeded Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs.
But first things first.
“Obviously, an enormous amount of respect [for the Heat], just the way they compete, the way they play,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Got a lot of respect for [Heat coach Erik Spoelstra]. Like most teams throughout the course of an NBA season, there’s always things you go through as a team, and certainly they went through their fair share this year. We’ve gone through ours. It’s one of those games for both teams where it’s one-and-done. It’s a great opportunity. The guys earned the right to be able to play in the game, and that’s a great thing. I’m excited about it.”
Donovan wasn’t alone in that thought.
“I think it’s good for us,” forward Julian Phillips said. “It’s good to kind of know where we’re going to be later down the line when the time comes.”
The regular season will come to an end Sunday. The Bulls (38-43) travel to Philadelphia for the finale, but it will be a meaningless game for them.
If the Bulls — who likely will be using backups — beat the 76ers, they’ll finish with the same 39-43 record as last season.
The difference is there’s a new, younger core to at least press forward with.
Josh Giddey and Coby White have made the trades of DeMar DeRozan, Alex Caruso and Zach LaVine much easier to accept, and rookie Matas Buzelis continued making his final statements for All-Rookie first-team honors with a 20-point game against the Wizards, who weren’t exactly looking to put up much resistance. Washington (17-64) was on a mission of its own, looking to lock into finishing at the bottom of the standings to keep the hope for drafting Cooper Flagg alive and well.
The Wizards, Jazz and Hornets have a 14% chance of hitting No. 1 in next month’s draft lottery.
And with the Bulls up by two after the first quarter, the Wizards did what the Wizards do. They took a knee. The Bulls held them to 8-for-23 (35%) shooting from the field and outscored them 32-19 in the second quarter.
It wasn’t much better after halftime for them as Julian Phillips scored 15 of his career-high 23 points in the third quarter.
“It was good,” Phillips said of his showing. “Knocked down some shots. There were some things I could have done better, but pretty solid.
“You just want to play the game. You train to do everything, so that when the situation comes, you can do it. Just reading the game and reading what comes to you.”
The Bulls also got 16 points from White and 15 from Nikola Vucevic.