Ranking the Chicago Bulls’ ideal 2023 first-round playoff matchups

2. Boston Celtics (47-22)

As good as the Boston Celtics have been this season, they haven’t actually been able to establish dominance over the struggling Chicago Bulls. In the four games these teams played against each other, they split the season series two games a piece, with the home team emerging victorious each time.

But chalking things up to a simple home-court advantage would be a little disingenuous here. In the two games the Bulls won, they outscored Boston by 18 points and 14 points, respectively. Meanwhile, the Celtics barely scraped out their pair of victories, winning with margins of 4 points and 8 points. Even in the games they lost, the Bulls were never out of things and had a real chance to win all four; the same cannot be said for the Celtics.

Unlike Philadelphia and Milwaukee, an important thing to note here is that Boston lacks a dynamic defensive center. Robert Williams III is supposed to play that role, but has struggled to remain healthy this year (and even when he has played, it would be insulting to compare his presence to Embiid, Antetokounmpo, or Lopez). Boston’s frontcourt rotation of Al Horford, Mike Muscala, and Grant Williams simply doesn’t provide the defensive capability necessary to shut down a team like the Bulls that prefers to score within the three-point line.

Due to Chicago’s unwillingness to jack up threes, the Celtics’ strength of amazing perimeter defense is by and large rendered ineffective as DeRozan works the mid-range, LaVine drives to the hoop, and Vucevic puts in work in the low post. If the Chicago Bulls do manage to qualify for the 2023 NBA Playoffs, I’m not willing to write them off in a first-round matchup against the Boston Celtics just yet.