The Chicago Bulls on April 9 beat the Miami Heat 119-111 in what was likely an Eastern Conference Play-In Tournament preview. With two games remaining in the regular season, Chicago is a full game up on Miami for ninth place in the East (and just .5 behind the Atlanta Hawks for eighth).
Josh Giddey led the Bulls with his seventh triple-double of the season, scoring 28 points while adding 16 rebounds and 11 assists.
There’s still a possibility Chicago could overtake Atlanta and head into the postseason with a No. 8 seed, but a Heat-Bulls matchup seems inevitable—and fitting, given that Miami has ended Chicago’s season the last two years, both times in the East Play-In.
Those games seem like a lifetime ago, however, given the Bulls’ late-season run and how they’re rolling into the 2024-25 postseason.
Chicago Bulls playing well enough to win Play-In Tournament
Chicago is 7-3 in its last 10 games and 13-5 in its last 18. Over that latter stretch, the Bulls are tied for the fifth-best record in the NBA. They’re second in the league in scoring (122.1 points per game), fourth in field-goal percentage (49.4), fifth in rebounding (46.7) and fourth in assists (29.5).
Giddey has legitimately been one of the league’s best point guards while Coby White has turned into one of its most dangerous bucket-getters, scoring 28.1 ppg, seventh-best in the NBA.
This has some Bulls fans believing Chicago could beat the Heat and whoever it would face next, either the Hawks or Orlando Magic, and make the playoffs for the first time in three seasons. But that wouldn’t necessarily be a good thing.
A playoff berth would take the Bulls out of the draft lottery and officially eliminate any chance the franchise would have at landing a top draft pick. The chances aren’t great now, but they’d become zero if Chicago landed either one of the No. 7 or 8 seeds.
A pair of do-or-die postseason games and a playoff series would, in all fairness, benefit players like Matas Buzelis, who haven’t played in a pressure-packed NBA game. Even White and Giddey have limited experience in that arena.
But would the benefits of a series against the Cleveland Cavaliers, which would likely end in a sweep, outweigh the benefits of another lottery pick and even the most miniscule of miniscule chances the Bulls have at landing a top prospect to add to the core of Giddey, White and Buzelis?
The answer’s no.
So, despite the feel-good vibes that would accompany an unexpected playoff berth, it would be best to do what the Bulls have nearly perfected at this point: Make the Play-In Tournament but fall short of the actual playoffs.