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 Bulls clinched their play-in position 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 Nov. 7 meeting. The Raptors won the last matchup 104-98 on Feb. 28 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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