Bulls lose to Hawks, increasing their risk of having to go on the road to start the play-in tournament

CHICAGO (670 The Score) – Prior to his Bulls hosting the Hawks on Monday evening at the United Center, coach Billy Donovan fielded a series of questions about the matchup with an eye on the future more than the game at hand that was set to tip off just more than 90 minutes later.

That’s because with just under two weeks remaining in the regular season, there’s an understanding that the teams will meet with more at stake soon enough. A collision in the 9/10 seed play-in game is coming, and all that’s left to figure out is where that contest will be held.

That question of location now carries intrigue after the Hawks earned a 113-101 win against the Bulls on Monday. With the victory, Atlanta (35-40) pulled within a half-game of ninth-place Chicago (36-40) in the East. Helping the Bulls’ case in the hunt to host the play-in as the No. 9 seed is that they hold the tiebreaker (they won the season series 2-1) and also the teams’ remaining schedules. The Hawks’ is more difficult.

While the mathematical possibility exists for the Bulls or Hawks to still climb to eighth, it’s the longest of long shots with the 76ers having five fewer losses as they currently occupy that spot. And so each side knows what’s coming.

“There’s a lot we can take from it,” said Bulls star DeMar DeRozan, who had a game-high 31 points. “I think for the most part, us just even losing this game at home, it’s something we should remember going into these next six games. If it’s them we play, understand what went wrong, what we need to do and how to not let that happen again.”

Whether the setting matters much when the Bulls and Hawks almost assuredly meet again the play-in tournament is a matter of some debate. The Bulls are 19-20 at home and 17-20 on the road, and Chicago won 136-126 at Atlanta on Feb. 12 in the teams’ only meeting at State Farm Arena this season.
The Hawks have a more pronounced discrepancy between their home and road success, as they’re 20-18 in Atlanta and 15-22 elsewhere.

The Bulls don’t play again until they host the Knicks on Friday, starting a stretch of six games in the final 10 days of the regular season. At least for the next few games, it seems the Bulls will proceed business as usual with everyone’s playing time, as Donovan stressed there's still something to play for and DeRozan added, “You can’t baby it.”

Even so, resting key players could become more of a consideration in the final days of the regular season if more is sorted out.

“You always want to play at home,” Donovan said of chasing the No. 9 seed. “There’s a reason that the No. 1 seeds get home court. There’s probably an advantage there, so you want to get it. I always feel, regardless of home court or not home court, the most important thing to your team is the team’s health physically. So it will be something we probably have to talk about.

“Those are all things that we probably have to map out organizationally, looking at it. Certainly, checking with the players, I think that’s important.
I think everybody is a little bit different. There’s certain guys that find a good rhythm of playing, and there’s some guys that may need rest. We’ll try to make those decisions when they come. But certainly with what’s in front of us, we feel like we have a lot to play for.”

On Monday, the Bulls’ undoing was largely the 3-point discrepancy. Chicago shot 7-of-28 (25%) on 3-pointers, while Atlanta shot 19-of-40 (47.5%).

“We couldn’t get nothing to drop,” DeRozan said. “We competed, played hard. It felt like one of games that nothing could go our way. We were moving the ball. As bad as it feels now, I don’t think we played that bad. We just missed a lot of shots, missed a lot of opportunities, and they were extremely hot. But this, obviously, is a game that means something about whether we’re going to be home, away, whatever it may be. But we got to remember this. We got six games until we’re at wherever we’re at. We just got to make sure these six, we’re locked in.”

Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund .