The Chicago Bulls kept their hopes for a Playoff berth alive with a dramatic 109-105 victory over the Toronto Raptors in the NBA Play-in tournament on Wednesday night at the Scotiabank Arena in Toronto. Playing in front of a hostile crowd against and a Raptors squad that was clicking on all cylinders, the Bulls found themselves down by 19 early in the third quarter, 66-47.
Still, the Bulls relented and leaned on the explosive second half of ace wingman Zach LaVine—who scored 30 of his 39 points in the second half—to make a comeback and eventually emerge with the victory.
Next up for the Bulls is the Miami Heat on Friday with the winner of that clash securing the eighth seed and the right to battle the top-seeded Milwaukee Bucks in the first round of the NBA Playoffs.
First 10th seed to get a win in the Play-in
The Play-in tournament began in 2020, and since then, no 10th seed has been able to advance further until the Bulls finally did it on Wednesday. Apart from LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic also came up with stellar performances, as Deebo recorded 23 points, seven rebounds, three assists, and two blocks, while Vooch had a double-double of 14 points and 13 boards.
19-point comeback tonight in Toronto 💪@Plus500 | #BullsNation pic.twitter.com/FNru3DRyZX
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) April 13, 2023
Alex Caruso and Pat Beverley also had their moments, making several crucial baskets and plays at critical junctures of the fourth to help set the stage for LaVine and DeRozan to carry them to the finish line.
“I think that’s why our team is setup for success, we got two killers in Zach and DeMar,” Caruso said. “That’s all we got to do is play our roles and then we know we got two killers that down the stretch of the game can go get a bucket on just about anybody in the league.”
Raptors’ ineptitude at the free-throw line
The Raptors had every chance to blow the game out of the water, but shot themselves in the foot by repeatedly missing from the free-throw line. With DeMar DeRozan’s daughter Diar screaming her lungs out every time a Raptors player shot from the charity stripe, Toronto missed half of their 36 attempts—the most in a winner-take-all game since 1969.
“That’s a lot of misses,” Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. “We left a lot of points on the board.”
Source: yardbarker.com
