The Miami Heat will travel to Chicago to take on the Bulls in the 9th vs 10th play-in game.
The winner will play the loser of the Magic and Hawks game for the 8th seed. The loser will start prepping for the offseason.
Chicago holds home court advantage as they are the 9th seed with a 39-43 record. They have a 18-23 record at the United Center. The Bulls enter this matchup as winners of 3 straight.
Miami stumbled to the 10th seed with a 37-45 record. The Heat went 6-4 in their last 10 games of the season.
Chicago swept the season series against Miami 3-0.
For Chicago, this has been somewhat of a transitional season. At the trade deadline, they parted ways with Zach Lavine. Lavine spent the last 8 seasons as a Bull.
After trading Lavine, the Bulls have focused more on building a roster around their developing backcourt of Josh Giddey and Coby White.
White has taken more responsibility in scoring since Lavine’s departure. He has emerged as Chicago’s leading scorer with 20.4 points per game.
Giddey, who the Bulls traded for in the offseason, has become an all-around floor general. He averaged 14.6 points, 8.1 rebounds and 7.2 assists.
These two along with Nikola Vucevic have powered Chicago into being a top-6 offense at 117.8 points per game.
While not committing to a full-on rebuild, Chicago still has its eyes on younger talent. The Bulls’ 2024 draft pick Matas Buzelis earned the starting power forward role in February. Since his move to the starting lineup, Buzelis has averaged 13 points, 4.5 rebounds and 1.9 assists.
Just like Chicago, the Miami Heat are having a transitional season of their own. The Heat parted ways with Jimmy Butler, who led the franchise to two finals appearances in the last 5 years.
Aside from Butler, the Heat’s core has stayed intact in those 5 years. Tyler Herro and Bam Adebayo lead Miami on offense and defense respectively.
Herro has had a career best year. He averaged 23.9 points, 5.2 rebounds and 5.5 assists en route to his first All-Star appearance.
From the Butler trade, Miami received Andrew Wiggins. Wiggins has made an immediate impact in Miami as he averaged 19 points, 4.2 rebounds and 3.3 assists in 17 games.
Throughout the season, Miami’s head coach Erik Spolestra has experimented with different starting lineups.
Spolestra ultimately made the move to shift Adebayo to the power forward spot. One of Miami’s weaknesses throughout the years has been size, as Adebayo is just 6-foot-9 at the center position. Rookie center Kel’el Ware has given the Heat much needed size in the starting lineup.
This will be the third consecutive year that Miami and Chicago have met in the play-in. The Heat have won the last two.
This game will come down to Chicago’s newfound energy versus Miami’s experience.
Chicago comes into this game as the hotter team This is the year they take the next step and finally beat Miami to advance in the play-in.
Prediction: The Bulls win and advance to the 8th seed game.
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