The Chicago Bulls are locked in to the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference after Friday\u2019s 119-89 win over the Washington Wizards at the United Center.<\/p>\n
The Bulls needed only one win in their final two regular-season games to ensure they would finish ninth or better in the East. A rout of the 17-win Wizards \u2014 led by a career-high 23-point performance from Julian Phillips \u2014 was plenty to clinch that position and earn home-court advantage for the first round of the NBA Play-In Tournament.<\/p>\n
The Bulls will face the 10th-seeded Miami Heat on Wednesday night at the United Center. The start time has yet to be announced.<\/p>\n
Halfway across the country, the Atlanta Hawks secured the East\u2019s No. 8 seed with a 124-110 win over the Philadelphia 76ers. The Hawks will play the seventh-seeded Magic in a first-round play-in game Tuesday in Orlando, Fla.<\/p>\n
If the Bulls lose to the Heat on Wednesday, they would be eliminated from the postseason. If they win, they will advance to play the Hawks-Magic loser April 18 on the road. The winner of that game will earn the No. 8 seed in the East playoffs and a first-round matchup with the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers.<\/p>\n
This is the second consecutive year that the Bulls have finished as the No. 9 seed \u2014 and their third straight trip to the play-in tournament. Both of their prior play-in tournaments ended with road losses to the Heat.<\/p>\n
The Bulls conclude the regular season Sunday with a road game against the Philadelphia 76ers.<\/p>\n
Here are three takeaways from the win.<\/p>\n
1. Julian Phillips took advantage of a rare start<\/p>\n
Although it hasn\u2019t been a centerpiece story, Phillips\u2019 development has been crucial for the Bulls this season. The second-year wing has grown into a more confident shooter, posting 32.2% efficiency from 3-point range while taking twice as many shots from deep. His springy presence around the rim has paid dividends on both ends of the court in blocks and put-back dunks.<\/p>\n
Photos: Chicago Bulls beat Washington Wizards 119-89 in regular-season home finale<\/a><\/p>\n<\/p>\n In only his third start of the season, Phillips posted a career high in points on 7-for-11 shooting and added nine rebounds, an assist and a steal.<\/p>\n 2. Nikola Vu\u010devi\u0107 narrowly missed another triple-double<\/p>\n After a visible drop-off around the trade deadline<\/a>, the center has returned to top form.<\/p>\n Vu\u010devi\u0107 admitted that the uncertainty surrounding his future at the deadline<\/a> affected his play for several weeks. But after missing seven games, Vu\u010devi\u0107 centered himself and bounced back to his former efficiency, shooting 47.5% from 3-point range over the last 14 games.<\/p>\n After a triple-double against the Heat on Wednesday<\/a>, Vu\u010devi\u0107 nearly repeated the feat in Friday\u2019s win. He finished with 15 points and 12 rebounds but fell two assists short.<\/p>\n \u201cMaybe you should have made more shots,\u201d Vu\u010devi\u0107 said jokingly to guard Coby White in the locker room after the game.<\/p>\n 3. Lonzo Ball and Tre Jones are doubtful to return<\/p>\n The Bulls were missing three high-powered guards in Friday: Josh Giddey, Ball and Jones.<\/p>\n Giddey was sidelined with a forearm injury but is expected to be available for the play-in tournament. However, Ball and Jones are less likely to play next week.<\/p>\n Jones is still confined to a walking boot after suffering a left midfoot sprain three weeks ago. He was reevaluated two weeks after the injury but still is experiencing too much discomfort to be cleared for the next step of recovery.<\/p>\n Ball is still stuck in the same stage of an attempted return from a sprained right wrist<\/a> that has nagged the guard since October.<\/a><\/p>\n Originally Published: April 11, 2025 at 10:37 PM CDT<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Chicago Bulls are locked in to the No. 9 seed in the Eastern Conference after Friday\u2019s 119-89…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":21774,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3771],"tags":[7,920,919,329,3824,7505,189,6,4462,11,468],"class_list":{"0":"post-21773","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-chicago-bulls","8":"tag-basketball","9":"tag-bulls","10":"tag-chicago","11":"tag-chicago-bulls","12":"tag-chicagobulls","13":"tag-julian-phillips","14":"tag-miami-heat","15":"tag-nba","16":"tag-nba-play-in-tournament","17":"tag-nba-playoffs","18":"tag-washington-wizards"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/channels.im\/@nba\/114479490977330314","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21773","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21773"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21773\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21774"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21773"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21773"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.rawchili.com\/nba\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21773"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}