Now that the Bulls have clinched a berth in the Eastern Conference play-in, their next goal is to get a tournament game at the United Center.
“It’s always easier to win at home, obviously,” guard Kevin Huerter said. “It’s a long trip to get down to Miami.”
There’s a chance the Bulls won’t play the Heat in the first round, but they did take a step toward hosting a game at the United Center by holding off the short-handed Trail Blazers 118-113 on Friday.
Josh Giddey had his sixth triple-double (15 points, 12 assists, 19 rebounds), and Nikola Vucevic and Coby White led the Bulls with 31 points apiece as they won for the sixth time in eight games and tied the Heat for ninth in the East at 35-42.
“We know where we are,” Giddey said. “We try not to pay too much attention because you take it one game at a time. There’s five left, and we’ll see where we are after 82. To say we’re not aware of it, I’d be lying.’’
If the Bulls and Heat are even at the end of the season, the Bulls have the tiebreaker after beating them twice. The Bulls do not hold the tiebreaker over the Hawks, the eighth-place team in the East, who are 1½ games ahead of the Bulls.
“I just want our guys to understand where we’re at,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Really, all any team can do at this point is control what they can control.”
Giddey got the triple-double with 3:43 left when White grabbed his one-handed pass and dunked to give the Bulls a 108-101 lead.
The Bulls led by 15 with 8:29 left, but the Blazers rallied, closing the deficit to two with 2:45 to go on a three-pointer by Dalano Banton. Rookie Matas Buzelis answered with a three-pointer and Vucevic added a jumper, and the Bulls closed the game out.
“We never got rattled,” Giddey said.
Buzelis (12 points, 12 rebounds) picked up his first double-double. With his 12 rebounds, Vucevic had his 200th double-double as a Bull, tying Scottie Pippen for second in team history.
Fitting in
Before coming to the Bulls as part of the Zach LaVine trade, Huerter was averaging 11.1 three-point shots per 100 possessions for the Kings. Huerter has kept up that pace for the Bulls at 11.2.
The Bulls are glad to see that his accuracy has improved, rising from 30.2% in Sacramento to 35.5% with them.
“We have a lot of possessions, we run the court, we play in transition, so those shots are going to be there,” Huerter said.
Defensively speaking
Entering Friday, Buzelis’ defensive rating of 112.4 was better than the Bulls’ team rating of 115.5.
Buzelis, however, is far from a finished product on defense. Donovan said he needs to improve his positioning, learn team personnel and get stronger.
“He’s got to be able to navigate through screens better,” Donovan said. “The one thing about him, when he is on the ball and guys do drive on him, he’s gotten much better at using his length and not fouling — really rim-protecting, blocking shots.”
Injury update
Dalen Terry played 14½ minutes after missing Tuesday’s game with a calf problem.
