Chicago Bulls — trailing by 2 games with 10 to go — no longer control their own fate for the Eastern Conference play-in tournament

Jamal Collier, Chicago Tribune
·3 min read
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The Chicago Bulls have been hanging on as best they can without guard Zach LaVine in the race for the No. 10 seed in the Eastern Conference, but their chances are starting to fade with 10 games remaining in the season.

The Bulls lost 113-94 to the New York Knicks on Wednesday night and dropped further behind the Washington Wizards, who they now trail by two games for the final spot in the play-in tournament. That deficit is not insurmountable — although the Wizards are one of the hottest teams in the NBA — but the schedule and their circumstances aren’t doing them any favors.

Eight of the Bulls’ final 10 games are against Eastern Conference playoff teams, with another against the Toronto Raptors, who they’re tied with at No. 11 The next three games are against the Milwaukee Bucks, Atlanta Hawks and Philadelphia 76ers — teams in the top half of the standings. LaVine is almost certain to miss both games of a back-to-back this weekend and Monday’s game against the Sixers is also in jeopardy.

After controlling their own playoff destiny for months, the Bulls are facing an uphill battle to secure a play-in spot over the final 2 1/2 weeks of the regular season.

“We put ourselves in a more difficult position than we were,” said center Nikola Vučević, who scored 26 points and grabbed 18 rebounds Wednesday in his best efforts to carry the team. “But there’s no point in us looking back at it and thinking about what could’ve been or what we could’ve done differently.”

In the loss to the Knicks, the Bulls drew three technical fouls — Vučević, Daniel Theis and coach Billy Donovan. The game was physical and they had legitimate gripes with the officials. Coby White got hit in the face and Daniel Theis was left bleeding on one play, but, perhaps, frustration is beginning to boil over.

The Bulls have 10 games remaining to make the playoffs, but if they fall short there will be plenty of losses down the stretch to lament. In the past few weeks, they’ve lost to the Minnesota Timberwolves, Orlando Magic and got blown out by the Cleveland Cavaliers. The Bulls have gone 4-4 without LaVine, but they erased their margin of error with a pair of extended losing streaks — six games surrounding the trade deadline and five games earlier this month.

Vučević has come exactly as advertised: 22.5 points, 10.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists on 51.3% shooting, but the team is 7-12 since adding him at the trade deadline.

The Bulls made that move to set themselves up beyond this season, but there’s no question ending this season with a whimper would be a disappointment.

“We’re still growing as a team,” Vučević said. “It’s not over. We’re going to fight until the end. There’s still 10 games left. A lot of things can happen. It’s sports. A lot of things happen in sports, especially in the NBA.

“We’ll continue to fight until the end and hopefully we make it. And if we don’t, we’ll have to learn from that.”