Despite struggling on the road, the Chicago Bulls picked up a W against the Wizards on Wednesday night to finish off a 5-game road stretch. They went 2-3 over that span collecting their other win from the Cavaliers on Saturday. Four of the five games were winnable, the most difficult was facing up against the reigning champion Milwaukee Bucks. With the 4-7 seeds in the Eastern Conference standings only being separated by a game and a half, every one of these final games is crucial to avoid slipping into the play in tournament.
If the season ended today, the Bulls would be the 5 seed, matching up against Philadelphia in the 4 seed. Chicago has struggled to defend the East’s dominant big men all year, Embiid is no exception. The added threat of Harden makes this an even tougher matchup than it was before the trade deadline. Billy Donovan would need to come up with an exceptional gameplan to scheme for the Philly Powerhouse.
I do have faith that the Bulls will have the ability to steal at least one game on the road, if we can head back to Chicago with a 3-2 advantage, I think the United Center will be rocking and I like our chances. I like that a lot better than heading back to Philly for a game 7, but we have all seen what DeMar DeRozan has been capable of with the game on the line. DeRozan has not had much luck with post-season success, but this season we have seen him unleash a whole new level of potential and I am excited to see what that can look like in a gritty playoff series. I would like nothing more than for the Bulls to eliminate James Harden from the playoffs.
Of course, all of this is dependent on a healthy lineup. Both Zach Lavine and Alex Caruso look to be fighting through some pain. Zach with his knee injury and Caruso seems to have tweaked his back. The hope was to have Lonzo back by the playoffs but that now seems less than likely, however we did return PWill back to the lineup. We are going to need everyone we can get to make a push and play the disruptor role in this year’s playoffs, but I think this Bulls team has the heart and the hustle to shake things up.
With just six games remaining in the regular season, let’s hope the Bulls can snag at least four of those six and enter the playoffs on a good note, with health and ideally a more favorable matchup! I think the Bulls match up best against the Celtics, based on the fact the other options (Heat, Bucks, 76ers) all have dominant big men, and that spells trouble for this Bulls team as I noted earlier. Robert Williams went down with an unfortunate injury this week which further bolsters my stance that I would rather play the Celtics. Although it increases the Bulls odds, I do hope for a quick recovery for Timelord, he has a bright future in the NBA.
Get at me on Twitter @GreNBA_ Let me know your thoughts, who would you prefer the Bulls match up with in the first round and can they make a splash? As always, thanks for reading, this is all net!
Jacob Grenemeier
March 29th 2022
Chicago Hoop Heads 
