CHICAGO (670 The Score) – The Bulls will soon be back in a familiar setting – the NBA play-in tournament.
The Bulls made sure of that by routing the Raptors, 137-118, on Tuesday evening at the United Center to clinch a berth in the play-in tournament for the third straight year. At 34-42, the Bulls currently sit in 10th place in the East, a half-game behind the ninth-place Heat, with six regular-season games remaining.
The two teams have met in each of the past two years in Miami in the final play-in game with the No. 8 seed in the playoffs on the line. The Heat won both times, a fact the Bulls haven’t forgotten.
“It’s tough, especially to lose to the same team twice,” Bulls guard Coby White said in reflecting on the past two years. “So it’s tough, but like this is the path we were given. This is our journey. This is our own personal journey as a team. So we got to make the most of it, continue to fight together, be together, stay connected. We’re still blessed and fortunate with an opportunity to make the playoffs, so we got to take full advantage of it.”
On Tuesday, White helped the Bulls make easy work of the Raptors. He led all scorers with 28 points while adding six assists on the same day that that he was named the Eastern Conference Player of the Month for March.
White became the sixth Bull in franchise history to earn the honor. He did so by averaging 27.7 points, 4.7 rebounds and 3.7 assists while shooting 49.5% overall in 15 games in March.
“Just continue to get better each and every day, continue to grow,” White said when asked what the next step for him is. “I’m not going to limit myself to anything. I just want to continue to get better, continue to be who I am, put my all into this game and then whatever happens after that happens. At the end of it, I just want to know I put my everything into my profession and my career.”
Guard Talen Horton-Tucker had 27 points off the bench for the Bulls on a night that six of his teammates were sidelined by injury. Center Nikola Vucevic added 22 points and 10 rebounds.
At stake now for the Bulls is a potential home game in the 9-10 matchup in the play-in round, though they also have a small chance to climb as high as the seventh or eighth spot in the East. The Heat have a slightly harder schedule than the Bulls down the stretch, and the teams will meet on April 9 in Chicago in a game that could go a long way to determining who hosts the play-in round opener.
For their part, the Bulls’ full focus is on climbing as high as they can in the standings, coach Billy Donovan said. They have no plans currently to rest anyone just for the sake of resting them, and Donovan has shown his players the standings recently to illustrate where they reside.
“The feeling would be is how do we play to continue to try to maybe get a home game in this,” Donovan said.
“We have to try to continue to get better and to try to improve. Since the All-Star break, trade deadline, I think we’ve had maybe 20 games together. I know that’s maybe a quarter of the season, but we need that time.
“We’ve got to continue to try to improve and get better so we are playing well.”
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.