Chicago Bulls vs. Toronto Raptors Play-In preview
The Chicago Bulls and Toronto Raptors go toe-to-toe in the 9 vs. 10 match up in the Eastern Conference for a chance to play the winner of the 7 vs. 8 game.
The Toronto Raptors and the Chicago Bulls will tip off the second Play-In Day on Wednesday night from north of the border in the 9 vs. 10 match up. The winner will earn the right to play the loser of the Heat vs. Hawks game from the night before.
Tie break with Hawks has Raptors at 9th seed
Both the Raptors and the Bulls avoided the Play-In Tournament last year, as Chicago finished 6th and Toronto finished 5th in the East, but this year both teams have struggled to keep up with the rest of the pack at the top of the Conference table.
Toronto finished the season with the same record as the 8th seeded Atlanta Hawks but missed out on the win and in game because of a head to head tie breaker that will force them to win two Play-In matches if they want to get to the first round of the playoffs.
A six game losing streak at the beginning of December put the Raptors well below .500 and they would have to fight to get back to a winning record which they did in the 79th game of the season, but would fall back to .500 to finish off the regular season.
Bulls battling with no Ball
Chicago most likely wasn’t expecting to have to fight for a Play-In spot coming into this season. With a trio of Zach LeVine, DeMar DeRozan and Lonzo Ball, there were sky high expectations in the Windy City, but Ball’s injury he suffered in January of last year carried over into this year and kept him out the entire season. Patrick Beverly came to the Windy City in the middle of the season and has added a bit of fight to this team, which which could prove valuable over the next week.
With Ball out, Billy Donovan had no one to run the team, and the Bulls slumped down the standings. Chicago won five of their first nine games, but that would be the last time they were over .500 on the season.
Tale of the tape
Both the Raptors and the Bulls are in the bottom 10 of the NBA when it comes to scoring. Chicago is 24th in scoring, averaging just 113.1 an outing while the Toronto is 26th at 112.9 ppg this season. The Raptors are a high paced team that like to break out in transition, but once they are slowed down they are dreadful in the half court. They are ranked last in points per play in when forced to play in the half court.
Pascal Siakam is the top scorer for the Raptors at 24.2 ppg and Fred Van Vleet nets just under 20 a night, but his 7.2 assists a game put him among the best passers in the league. Zach Levine is Chicago’s top scorer at almost 25 a game, and Demar DeRozan is right behind him at 24.5 ppg. Their big man, Nikola Vucvevic posts 17.6 a game and grabs 11 rebounds a game which is good enough for top 10 in the league.
Head-to-head
These two teams have met three times this year, with Toronto winning the rubber match in Canada at the beginning in March thanks to Siamkam’s 20 points and Gary Trent Jr.’s 19 off the bench. Toronto and Chicago played a back to back home and away series in early November and the home teams won each game on their own hardwood. Recent history would suggest that Toronto, who will be playing at home will have the advantage but we will have to wait until Wednesday to find out.