The Bulls have had their share of rough nights this season.
Friday definitely wasn’t one of them.
First, they took care of their own business, easily disposing of the undermanned, under-talented Charlotte Hornets 121-91 at the Spectrum Center, and then inched closer to climbing up in the play-in seedings thanks to stumbles by both Toronto and Atlanta.
With just five regular-season games left, things are about to get very interesting.
“It’s all about us at this point in the season,’’ forward Patrick Williams said of the team’s mindset after the latest victory. “Us just focusing on what we do well, trying to play to our identity each and every night. Not really about who we play, more so about our effort and our energy.’’
A lot of those boxes were checked, allowing the Bulls to finish off their first winning month of the entire season, going 9-6 in March.
But even with that success, help was needed in order for the Bulls (37-40) to better their situation. Help came.
The Hawks sat in the No. 8 seed, while the Raptors were the No. 9 seed, each two games up on the Bulls. Now that lead is just a game for both, as Brooklyn beat Atlanta and Philadelphia took care of Toronto. The Raptors do have the tie-breaker over the Bulls, but what it now means is Tuesday’s game at the United Center between the Bulls and Hawks looms large, especially with the Bulls up 2-1 in the season series.
The No. 10 seed has to win two road games in the play-in tournament just to reach postseason play, and even then the reward is facing the top team in the East in the first round.
No thanks.
But first things first, as the Bulls had to take care of their own business, getting up for a game that had lethargic written all over it. After all, the Hornets (26-52) have been in tanking mode most of the second half, evident by the fact that they were already without LaMelo Ball after his season-ending ankle surgery, but also sat Gordon Hayward, Kelly Oubre Jr., Terry Rozier, and Dennis Smith Jr.
No worries, they still had P.J. Washington, who scored 28 points, 21, and 43, over his last three games. Well, they had him until they didn’t, with Washington leaving after just 12 minutes of work because of a foot sprain.
Not that his presence would have mattered much, as the Bulls made it a business trip right from the tip-off.
First there was an 8-0 run by the visiting team to start the game, and by the midway point of that first stanza the lead was up to 14 after a Zach LaVine lay-up.
Charlotte did make some noise in the closing minutes of that opening quarter thanks to hitting 5-of-12 from three-point range, but what they couldn’t avoid was sloppy possessions.
Then again, a starting five of Washington, Bryce McGowens, Mark Williams, Svi Mykhailiuk, and Theo Maledon doesn’t exactly scream precision offense. The Bulls made sure of that, turning the Hornets over eight times in the first 12 minutes and scoring 12 points off of it.
A storyline for the evening, as Charlotte finished the night with 22 turnovers and allowed 29 points off of those miscues.
What Billy Donovan came away with was his team didn’t play down to the competition. A bad habit for this Bulls team far too often this season.
“A lot of [Charlotte’s starters] have been in the NBA, have been on different teams, played here, our guys knew who these guys are,’’ Donovan said. “But it’s not really about your opponent. It’s really a standard of what you need to play to as a team. If your standard is going to be predicated on who is wearing what jersey or what the back of the jersey says, it’s really hard to reach your full potential.’’