The Chicago Bulls will face the Toronto Raptors on Wednesday in the NBA play-in tournament.
The Raptors lost to the Boston Celtics on Friday to settle for the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference, setting up the matchup with the Bulls in Toronto.
The earlier this week, with losses to the Atlanta Hawks and the Milwaukee Bucks preventing them from climbing above the 10 seed.
If the Bulls win Wednesday, they would have a road game Friday against the loser of the play-in game between the No. 7 seed Miami Heat and No. 8 Atlanta Hawks.
Winning both would give the Bulls the No. 8 seed in the East, and they would face the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the NBA playoffs.As the No. 6 seed last season, the Bulls lost to the third-seeded Bucks in five games in the best-of-seven series.
The Bulls went 1-2 against Raptors this season, winning . The Raptors won after the Bulls collapsed in the fourth quarter, allowing an eight-point swing down the stretch.
The play-in game will be a homecoming for Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan, who spent the first nine seasons of his career with the Raptors. DeRozan has embraced any opportunity to return to Toronto for a game.
When posed with the likelihood of playing the Raptors, DeRozan expressed enthusiasm.
“Beautiful,” DeRozan said. “I think it’d be fun. It’d be very exciting. It’d be real cool.”
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