On Wednesday, the No. 9 and No. 10 seeds in the Eastern Conference — the Chicago Bulls and Miami Heat — will duke it out in a play-in game. The losing team will see its season come to a close, while the team that wins will move on to face the loser of the other Eastern Conference play-in matchup between the Atlanta Hawks and Orlando Magic.
Unfortunately for the Bulls, they will in all likelihood be without point guard Lonzo Ball for the important contest against Miami. According to Bulls head coach Billy Donovan, unless something “happens significantly between now and Wednesday,” Ball will be sidelined with a wrist injury.
Ball hasn’t seen the court for Chicago since the team beat the Toronto Raptors all the way back on Feb. 28, and he appeared in less than half of the Bulls’ 82 games in the regular season.
Injuries have been a major obstacle for Ball for the entirety of his stint in Chicago. He missed all of the 2022-23 and 2023-24 seasons due to injury woes, and he hasn’t played in more than 35 games in any one season as a Bull.
Other backcourt players nursing injuries for the Bulls include Ayo Dosunmu (who’s out for the season), Tre Jones (who’s been in a walking boot) and Josh Giddey (who seems to be on track to play against the Heat).
While Chicago’s injury situation is worth monitoring, how Miami fared against the Bulls during the regular season might not give fans of the Heat much confidence heading into the game.
Simply put, Chicago had Miami’s number, as the Bulls came out on top in every one of the three regular-season matchups. The Heat and Bulls most recently faced off on April 9, and Chicago earned an eight-point victory.
Still, with any luck, the Heat will beat the Bulls on Wednesday and win another play-in contest in order to qualify for the playoffs once again. If Miami misses the playoffs, it will mark the team’s first absence since the year 2019. Miami finished the 2018-19 regular season with a record below .500 but was still a couple games better than this season’s Heat squad.