CHICAGO — The Chicago Bulls clinched a spot in the NBA postseason Tuesday night — and they didn’t even have to do the heavy lifting.
But the celebration was short-lived as the Bulls lost 123-105 to the Atlanta Hawks an hour later, all but cornering themselves into the least favorable seed.
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.
With three games to play, the Bulls (38-41) trail the Hawks and Toronto Raptors by two games, and the Raptors own the tiebreaker against the Bulls based on head-to-head record. The Bulls and Hawks split four games, so a tiebreaker would come down to conference record, in which the Bulls currently hold a half-game edge.
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 win over the Hawks would have given them the head-to-head tiebreaker and pushed them up to ninth in the standings.
Yet the Bulls came out flat-footed, allowing the Hawks to throw a 36-point punch in the first quarter and establish a 20-point lead midway through the second quarter.
The Bulls scraped back within eight points at various stretches of the fourth quarter but couldn’t overcome the deficit as they went 7-for-31 behind the 3-point arc while struggling to score at their typical volume off turnovers.
“This game was a must-win game for us and obviously we didn’t do it good enough,” guard Zach LaVine said. “They wanted it more than us. There ain’t time to dwell on the past. Obviously you don’t want to come out flat like this in the most important game of the year.”
If they remain in 10th place, 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 technically could climb higher in the standings, but that would require winning out — including Wednesday’s matchup with the first-place Milwaukee Bucks — plus a series of losses by the Hawks and Raptors.
The Bulls were handed another advantage when Hawks point guard Trae Young was too sick with a non-COVID illness to travel to Chicago for Tuesday’s game.
Young, who was suffering from a stomach bug, 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.
But the Hawks didn’t need Young to hold their position in the East standings. Bogdan Bogdanovic dominated behind the arc, hitting five 3-pointers to lead the Hawks with 26 points.
The loss disrupted a positive swing of momentum for the Bulls, who entered the game hopeful they could strengthen their postseason footing. Earning the ninth seed — or the seventh seed through a combination of winning out and losses by higher-seeded teams — would have provided them with home-court advantage in their first play-in game. And if they had been able to leap as high as the seventh or eighth seed, they could have gained 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 coach Billy Donovan remained firm that the best way for the Bulls to approach this final week is to focus on what they can control — winning their last three 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.”
