Play-In Race: Bulls Have a Chance to Put A Little Pressure on the Pacers

The Chicago Bulls have 17 games left to move up the Eastern Conference leaderboards. In other words, the Chicago Bulls are practically locked into 9th place!

Is it completely out of the question that the Bulls can make one last push to end the regular season? No. But it is pretty darn unlikely. Basketball-Reference’s Probabilities Report gives the Bulls a 74.6 percent chance to finish in the 9 seed as of publishing. Meanwhile, they have a 19.2 chance of falling to the 10 spot and a measly 2.8 percent chance to clinch the No. 8 spot.

But, hey, a 2.8 percent chance isn’t 0.0! We’d also likely see that number creep up if the Chicago Bulls can pull off a victory on Tuesday night.

The Indiana Pacers are 36-29 and sit 5.0 games ahead of the Bulls in the No. 7 seed. Yes, that feels like quite the extra fluffy cushion with roughly a month remaining, but Chicago will see them twice over these final 17 games (unlike the Miami Heat, who are currently in 8th by 4.5 games). The first of those two matchups comes tomorrow at Gainbridge Fieldhouse in Indianapolis. The second meeting will be at the United Center on March 27.

As talented as the Pacers are, they have been a mortal 5-4 since the All-Star break. The team also recently lost second-year scorer Bennedict Mathurin to a season-ending shoulder injury. He was averaging 14.5 points per game on 37.4 percent shooting from downtown. While his absence isn’t going to sink their ship, it is never a positive to lose a key rotation player during a postseason pursuit.

Not to mention, Indiana has some tough games left on the calendar. Not only do they still have to play the No. 3-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers twice, but they still have to see both the Thunder and Lakers twice. The Pacers also have a three-game Western Conference road trip lurking next week.

Positive Residual gives them the 12th-toughest strength of schedule to finish out the year. As for the Bulls, they are positioned to have the 8th easiest. So, again, should we feel confident in the Bulls’ ability to make up any ground? No. It’s far more unlikely than not. But, if the Bulls were able to beat the Pacers’ on Tuesday night (especially if it comes after a loss to the Thunder this evening), things could become a tiny bit more dramatic.

If one thing is for sure, the Bulls have every reason to try to achieve their slim odds. Sitting in either the No. 7 or No. 8 spot would mean having two chances to advance to a first-round series. If they weren’t able to secure a win in the 7v8 game, they’d at least have home-court advantage against the winner of the 9v10 game.

I know what you’re thinking – does any of this matter knowing you’re simply fighting for a chance to get smoked by either the Celtics or Bucks? Eh, probably not. But the Bulls clearly aren’t willing to prioritize lottery odds right now, so we might as well get these young players a little postseason experience.

Also, we were reminded last year that crazy things can happen once you crack the playoffs. Giannis Antetokounmpo hurt his back in Round 1 and the Play-In Heat marched to the NBA Finals. To be clear, that’s the LAST thing we should ever expect from this Bulls team, but it happened!