Westerlund: After Celtics outclass Bulls again, we have to ask again — what was ever the point of chasing the No. 8 seed?

CHICAGO (670 The Score) – In choosing to keep their focus on the present at the trade deadline by refusing to sell a couple veterans whom opposing teams had keen interest in, the Bulls indicated that there was some sort of meaning in reaching the playoffs this season.

While executive vice president of basketball operations Arturas Karnisovas claimed then that the Eastern Conference standings were bunched up in a way that Chicago could perhaps make a meaningful climb in its playoff positioning, that contention wasn’t rooted in much logic. At the time Karnisovas spoke on that Feb. 8 afternoon, the reality was the Bulls were three games under .500, in ninth place in the East and 4.5 games back of sixth place.

After the Bulls lost 129-112 to the NBA-best Celtics on Thursday at the United Center in their first game out of the All-Star break, that remains the similar reality. The Bulls are now four games under .500 at 26-30, in ninth place in the East and 5.5 games back of sixth place.

Any hope of climbing out of the play-in picture (seventh through 10th slots) by the end of the regular season is woefully misguided. By reasonable standards, what remains in play for the Bulls is to win a game or two in the play-in tournament to advance to the playoffs. That modest achievement, if you could even call it that, would then also resurface a key question after we saw the result of Thursday.

Why exactly did Karnisovas and the Bulls ever see a point in chasing a back-end playoff spot so vigorously when the reward appears like it will be a ceremonial curb stomping from the same Celtics who just visited town?

While there remains a path to landing the No. 7 seed, if the Bulls were to overcome the current odds to reach the playoffs, the overwhelming likelihood is they’d be the No. 8 seed. (The Bulls have a 22.3% chance to reach the postseason, according to Basketball Reference’s odds on Thursday evening, with that figure comprised of a 0.2% chance to be the sixth seed, a 2.6% chance to be the seventh seed and a 19.6% chance to be the eighth seed.) That means, in the reasonable best-case scenario, the Bulls would match up against the uber-talented Celtics, who sit in first in the East by a comfortable seven games and boast a league-best 10.2-point scoring differential.

The teams have played twice this season, and each game has been humbling for the Bulls in its own way. Chicago lost 124-97 at Boston on Nov. 28 in a game that featured the Celtics attempting to run up the score late to better position themselves for a tiebreaker in the In-Season Tournament race. Bulls guard Zach LaVine also exited that game with a right foot injury that has since caused him to be ruled out for the remainder of the season.

Thursday wasn’t as much of a direct humiliation for the Bulls as the previous clash with the Celtics. It was more of a classy, gentle reminder that the Celtics are elite and the Bulls have no hope of competing with them when Boston decides to lock in and care.

The Celtics took an early 16-point lead thanks in large part to ferocious rim protection, as they had seven blocks in the first quarter. The Bulls did well to fight back and up their intensity to take a 62-59 halftime lead, but the Celtics ran them out of the building in the third quarter, when star Jayson Tatum had 15 of his 25 points and hit a series of tough shots.

The Celtics shot 23-of-47 from 3-point range, which gave them a 39-point advantage from behind the arc as the Bulls shot 10-of-28 from deep. Boston certainly won’t replicate that 48.9% shooting from 3-point range every time these teams square off, but it will almost always have a significant advantage in that department – and many others.

“When they stepped it up, we weren’t able to match that,” Bulls center Nikola Vucevic said of the Celtics winning the third quarter 37-21.

That was stating the obvious, which everyone except Karnisovas understood well back on Feb. 8 when the Bulls continued with their current middling path instead of prioritizing the overall health of the organization.

That outlook is also unlikely to change in the next couple months, over which the verdict will be rendered on Karnisovas’ vision. Perhaps his dream will be fulfilled and the Bulls will reach the playoffs and be competitive, but two other outcomes are far more likely.

The Bulls will miss the playoffs altogether or be a sacrificial lamb at the hands of the Celtics in the first round if they do pull a mild surprise and reach that juncture.

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