The Chicago Bulls are about to embark on a uniquely challenging gauntlet of their regular-season schedule.
Playing back-to-back games is a common occurrence in the NBA. But this week’s slate is remarkable because of a repetition of back-to-backs within the same week — with only one day of rest. The Bulls play the Pacers in Indiana on Wednesday, then return home to face the Miami Heat on Thursday before flying out to Miami for a back-to-back rematch on Saturday and Sunday.
It’s strange to play four games in five days. It’s even more strange to play the same team three times in that span, a level of high-speed repetitiveness that doesn’t even occur in the playoffs. This is an anomaly of the schedule created by the postponement of a Jan. 8 game against the Heat, which was delayed and ultimately moved due to excessive condensation on the court.
For the Bulls, this breakneck pace of play won’t slow down until the All-Star break begins on Feb. 12 — they are scheduled to play nine games in the 15 days before that reprieve.
“We’re trying to make good choices,” coach Billy Donovan said. “It’s not only that it’s four games in five days — it’s five games in seven, it’s six in nine. It just keeps going.”
For Donovan, the first aspect of tackling this cramped crossroads of the season is puzzling out the injury math. The Bulls don’t know if guards Josh Giddey and Coby White — who are coming off respective injuries that limited their availability in recent weeks — will be ready to play in all four games this week.
Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan, center, reads a note during the first half of a game against the Los Angeles Lakers in Chicago, Monday, Jan. 26, 2026. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
White is almost back to his typical responsibilities as a starting guard after missing nearly half of the season with on-and-off calf injuries that became a problem last summer. The guard finally found his 3-point shooting rhythm in the last two weeks, knocking down an average of 5.2 per game at a 52% clip over the last five games.
“It’s been fun being able to play consecutive games, stacking games,” White said.
White’s visibly improved confidence and fitness on the court have given Donovan hope that he could play in at least three of the four games of this upcoming pair of back-to-backs. But after returning to the rotation last week following an 11-game absence with a hamstring strain, Giddey will be significantly less available.
Giddey’s minutes restriction has loosened from 24 to 28 minutes, but he is still coming off the bench and does not anticipate availability in a back-to-back this week. Both players planned to meet with the medical staff Tuesday to plan a more significant road map for the upcoming stretch of games.
The backcourt will be the main source of concern for load management, but the frontcourt poses its own dilemma — how to sustain a two-big lineup with only two available centers.
The Bulls stumbled onto a new preferred system this season by playing Jalen Smith at the four position, a look that has allowed the defense to shore up its rim protection without sacrificing 3-point shooting on the opposite end. Donovan felt so confident in the two-big look that he opted not to abandon it when center Zach Collins was sidelined with a toe sprain.
That places a notable burden on veteran center Nikola Vučević, whose playing time has crept close to 33 minutes per game over the last eight games. Vučević remains admirably resilient at age 35, but the Bulls are realistic about his ability to maintain this volume of minutes in a compacted week. The Bulls will be forced to steal rest for both centers this weekend, which could shift the responsibility onto forwards like Matas Buzelis.
Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey, left, drives to the basket past Los Angeles Lakers forward Jake LaRavia during the second half on Monday, Jan. 26, 2026, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Nam Y. Huh)
Ultimately, Donovan expects the medical team to pause after the first back-to-back games and reassess teamwide fitness before determining how to approach the two games in Miami.
This is more than just a packed section of the schedule. The team’s survival this week could serve as a much-needed springboard up the standings of the Eastern Conference, which is experiencing another year of extreme egalitarianism due to the injuries of key stars like Indiana’s Tyrese Haliburton and Milwaukee’s Giannis Antetokounmpo.
The Bulls broke even back to .500 with Monday’s loss to the Los Angeles Lakers, but they still sit only 1 1/2 games back from the Heat and the Philadelphia 76ers for sixth in the conference. Winning even just two of their games against the Heat this weekend could launch the Bulls into outright playoff position — and give them a tiebreaker when end-of-season seeding gets more serious.
For White, the key to surviving this pivotal stretch rests on the team not getting ahead of itself.
“We just (have to) mentally just stay locked into what we’re doing,” White said.
The Bulls have already experienced the highs and lows of another underwhelming season — first with the joy of opening the season 4-1, then with the dismal crash back to reality in a seven-game losing streak that stretched from late November to the opening week of December.
After normalizing in recent weeks, the Bulls are back on an upward trajectory with most of their roster intact once again — but consistency can be difficult to maintain when games are played in rapid succession.
“We’ve had those stretches where we look really good and then we go through stretches where we don’t look as good,” Giddey said. “It’s a matter of getting back to who we are as a team, playing to that identity. When we do it we show that we can play with anybody in the league and it’s a matter of just finding it consistently.”