Bulls and Thunder, one step away from playoffs
The Bulls will play for the last playoff spot against the Miami Heat next Friday after defeating the Raptors in Toronto 109-105 on Wednesday in a game that Chicago was down by 19 points at the start of the third quarter.
The game’s leading scorer was Bulls guard Zach Lavine, who scored 39 points. Teammate Nikola Vucevic posted a double-double with 14 points and 13 rebounds while DeMar DeRozan accumulated 23 points.
For the Raptors, the top scorer was Pascal Siakam with 32 points. But the player only scored 5 of the 11 free throws he had, and missed two crucial ones in the last seconds of the game that could have forced overtime.
Scottie Barnes and Fred VanVleet also stood out for the Raptors with a double-double each. Barnes had 19 points and 10 rebounds while VanVleet posted 26 points and 12 rebounds.
The Bulls got their only win this season at Toronto’s Scotiabank Arena when it counted the most, in the play-in. The Chicago team had lost the previous two games it had played in the Canadian city during the regular season.
And it looked as if Wednesday would be their third and final loss until the Raptors, who had dominated the game comfortably until the start of the third period, began to string together mistake after mistake.
In just over three crucial minutes of the fourth period, from 11:20 to 14:39, the Raptors racked up 6 turnovers and went from 87-82 down to 93-96. The Bulls did not squander the opportunity.
Toronto, which up to that point had only been behind on the scoreboard at the start of the second quarter by 1 point, never regained the lead.
The most they could do was tie it 100-100 with three minutes left.
And when Siakam had a chance to tie the score again with 12 seconds left in regulation with three free throws, the Raptors’ leading scorer missed the last two, ultimately dooming the Canadian team.
PELICANS 118 – THUNDER 123
After finishing 10th in the West and leaving the Dallas Mavericks out of the postseason, the Oklahoma City Thunder won 123-118 on Wednesday as visitors against the New Orleans Pelicans in the first round of the playoffs and will meet the Minnesota Timberwolves on Friday to qualify for the playoffs.
Shai Gilgeous-Alexander led the Thunder with 32 points, 25 of which came in the second half, and junior Josh Giddey nearly had a triple-double with 31 points, 9 rebounds and 10 assists.
The Thunder, the second-youngest team in the NBA, ended the season for a Pelicans that were without 2019 first-round draft pick Zion Williamson, who has been out since Jan. 2 with an injury.
Brandon Ingram contributed 30 points and Trey Murphy scored 21, with four three-pointers. Lithuanian Jonas Valanciunas dominated in the paint with 16 points and 18 rebounds, but the Pelicans were no match for a Thunder that had already beaten them at home last May.
It all came down to a high-voltage last few seconds. Gilgeous-Alexander got a block on Ingram to make it 112-112. Giddey gave the Thunder the lead from the free throw line (117-114) and the Pelicans increased the margin to four points, before Ingram hit a big three-pointer with 2.8 seconds left on the clock to keep his team alive.
Gilgeous-Alexander, from the free throw line put three points back in the game and that’s when the Pelicans, with 2.1 to play, gave up.
Murphy failed to put the ball in play and CJ McCollum couldn’t control it, opening the way to the 123-118 final.
