Preview: Bulls at Nets

[April 08, 2017]  The Chicago Bulls are among a group of three teams fighting over the last two spots in the Eastern Conference playoffs and are staring at the easiest closing schedule of the three. The Bulls will play their first of two against the team with the worst record in the NBA when they visit the Brooklyn Nets on Saturday.

Chicago, which closes the regular season by hosting the Nets on Wednesday after hosting Orlando on Monday, occasionally has trouble against the teams below it in the standings but seemed to solve that issue with a 102-90 win at Philadelphia on Thursday. A strong final three games and some help could push the Bulls all the way to fifth in the East while a bad run would knock them out of the postseason completely. The Nets may own the worst record in the league but they have not been playing like it of late with wins in six of the last 10 games. Brooklyn missed an opportunity to earn a season-long four-game winning streak and reach 20 wins with a 115-107 setback at Orlando on Thursday but won four of its last five at home.

TV: 5 p.m. ET, NBATV, WGN (Chicago), YES (Brooklyn)

ABOUT THE BULLS (39-40): All-Star swingman Jimmy Butler is doing his best to drag Chicago to the postseason and recorded a triple-double with 19 points, 10 rebounds and 10 assists in Thursday's win. "Jimmy, he's doing such a good job this year of taking what the defense gives him," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg told reporters. "He could have very easily had 15 or 16 assists tonight. He got our guys some wide-open shots they just didn't knock down. It's been really impressive to see the growth of Jimmy with the ball in his hands." Butler is averaging 28.3 points and 8.1 assists over the last seven games.

ABOUT THE NETS (19-60): Brooklyn reached the point with its run of strong play where it expects to win and expects to play well, and veteran center Brook Lopez was not happy with the team falling off in the third quarter or his own performance on Thursday. "They came out with more energy than us in the third," Lopez told reporters after the loss. "I was so flat-out poor tonight, it was rough. We’ve grown so much over this stretch, but we took a step back tonight." One player who wasn't poor was point guard Jeremy Lin, who scored a season-high 32 points in the loss and is 9-of-15 from 3-point range in the last three games.

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Nets SG Caris LeVert scored 20 points on Thursday after scoring in single digits in each of the previous eight contests.

2. Bulls PG Rajon Rondo sat out Thursday with a sprained right wrist and is day-to-day.

3. Chicago took the last three and five of six in the series.

PREDICTION: Bulls 120, Nets 113

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