The Chicago Bulls aren’t fairly within the NBA playoffs, however they've an opportunity to claw their method into the primary spherical with two wins within the play-in event this week.
The problem begins Wednesday, when the Tenth-seeded Bulls go to the ninth-seeded Toronto Raptors within the first leg of the event (6 p.m., ESPN).
The winner will advance to a Friday recreation in Miami in opposition to the Warmth, who misplaced 116-105 to the Atlanta Hawks on Tuesday evening. The Hawks earned the No. 7 seed within the Japanese Convention with the victory, whereas Friday’s winner will get the No. 8 seed.
The Raptors completed 41-41 after jockeying with the Hawks (41-41) and Bulls (40-42) for play-in positioning over the ultimate weeks of the season. The Bulls went 1-2 in opposition to the Raptors this season, dropping each of their video games in Toronto.
Right here’s what to anticipate from the matchup.
Working via strain
The Raptors have taken a transparent method in every of their matchups with the Bulls — get the ball out of the arms of DeMar DeRozan and Zach LaVine.
LaVine averaged 8.5 discipline targets made in his two outings in opposition to the Raptors, whereas DeRozan took solely 26 pictures in three video games and averaged 14 factors. The Raptors achieved this via a mixture of traps and double groups designed to maintain each gamers out of their consolation zones.
The Bulls know this pattern will proceed Wednesday. To ease the strain on DeRozan and LaVine, they want different scorers — comparable to Nikola Vučević, Coby White and Patrick Williams — to supply sufficient to even out protection throughout the courtroom.
However the Bulls additionally want their stars to discover a technique to thrive via the additional defensive consideration. The play-in recreation holds the identical do-or-die stakes as a Sport 7 of a playoff sequence, and for the Bulls, these moments at all times come all the way down to DeRozan and LaVine.
If the sport comes all the way down to the wire, one of many two stars might want to step up — particularly after the Bulls struggled in clutch conditions this season.
Dimension and energy
The common top of the Raptors roster is simply over 6-foot-7, practically a full inch taller than the league common. Along with bigs Jakob Poeltl (7-1) and Pascal Siakam (6-8), the staff has spectacular size with gamers comparable to wing Scottie Barnes (6-8).
This dimension benefit dictates the way in which the Raptors defend. They swap early and infrequently, throw our bodies on the line and attempt to shepherd each shooter into the paint, the place the prolonged arms of Poeltl and Siakam await to swat away pictures.
The discrepancy in dimension creates a specific problem for the Bulls on the boards. The Raptors are the second-best offensive rebounding staff within the NBA, averaging 12.7. Whereas the Bulls have been respectable in defensive rebounding this season, they struggled to maintain the Raptors off the offensive glass throughout each of their losses.
The strain will probably be on Bulls facilities Vučević and Andre Drummond, however rebounding will should be a teamwide effort for the Bulls to remain aggressive in opposition to the bigger Raptors.
Get on the run
If the Bulls can power the Raptors into errors and get into transition, they will lean into one among their best benefits. The Bulls are fourth within the league in factors off turnovers (18.3 per recreation) and play their greatest model of basketball after they push the ball with LaVine spearheading the assault.
However this energy additionally may very well be a weak point. The Bulls want to guard the ball to maintain from dropping management of the sport to the Raptors, who lead the league in factors off turnovers (21 per recreation). Stacking too many wasted possessions would play instantly into the model of the Raptors, who can put on down opponents with their physicality.
What are the chances?
The Raptors are favored by 5 factors. The over-under is ready at 214.5 complete factors.
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