The Chicago Bulls delivered a decisive blow Wednesday in a 119-111 victory over the Miami Heat at the United Center, taking a one-game advantage for the No. 9 seed into the final weekend of the regular season.
Matas Buzelis hit a pair of key baskets in clutch time — a driving floater and a transition 3-pointer — to clinch the win, putting the Bulls (37-43) ahead of the Heat (36-44) in the Eastern Conference standings with two games remaining.
Miami’s Tyler Herro stole the ball with a chance to cut the lead to one possession with 43 seconds left, only to pull up for a 3-pointer and whiff on the shot.
“That was pretty ballsy,” Bulls guard Kevin Huerter said with a laugh of Herro’s play.
With the win — and the head-to-head tiebreaker over the Heat they already had secured — the Bulls’ magic number for clinching the No. 9 seed is one.
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With a victory over the Washington Wizards on Friday or the Philadelphia 76ers on Sunday — or one more Miami loss — the Bulls would finish no worse than ninth, which would mean a home game Wednesday against the Heat in the play-in tournament.
Photos: Chicago Bulls 119, Miami Heat 111 at the United Center
The eighth seed also isn’t out of reach for the Bulls, who trail the Atlanta Hawks (37-42) by a half-game entering the Hawks’ road game Thursday night against the Brooklyn Nets.
If the Bulls win both of their final games and the Hawks lose at least two of their final three, the Bulls would jump up to the No. 8 seed, resulting in a play-in game on the road Tuesday against the Orlando Magic — and a chance to play the No. 2 seed Boston Celtics rather than the top-seeded Cleveland Cavaliers in the first round of the playoffs.
Here are four takeaways from the win.
1. Josh Giddey powered the offense.
The Bulls benefited from another full-throttle night from Giddey, who tallied 28 points, 16 rebounds and 11 assists to bolster them on both ends of the court.
Giddey’s creativity jump-started the offense after a slow night Tuesday in Cleveland. And he provided an important presence on the boards against a lengthy Heat team that often physically dominates opponents.
It was Giddey’s seventh triple-double of the season, reflecting his dramatic improvement since the All-Star break.
2. Injured players returned to the Bulls lineup.
The Bulls sat four of their five starters Tuesday against the Cavaliers in anticipation of Wednesday night’s key game for play-in seeding. Coby White was benched for rest, while Giddey, Huerter, and Nikola Vučević were held out preventatively with injuries.
All four returned to the lineup against the Heat. In addition to Giddey, Vučević and Huerter showed immediate benefits from taking a night off. Huerter made four 3-pointers and contributed 22 points. And Vučević had 20 points and 11 rebounds — including six offensive boards — while battling with Heat center Bam Adebayo in the paint.
3. A quiet start for Coby White.
The only player who didn’t come out with a pep in his step was White, who scored six points in the first three quarters. He struggled with his 3-point shot, going 0-for-5 behind the arc. That was a discrepancy from the rest of the Bulls, who went 14-for-32 (43.8%) from deep.
White finally began to return to form midway through the fourth quarter when he sank a pair of midrange jump shots to reignite his accuracy. He went on to anchor the Bulls offense in the fourth, scoring 12 of their 27 points in the quarter to finish with 18.
4. Lonzo Ball still hasn’t returned.
Ball has only two games left to get back before the regular season ends. He didn’t participate in Tuesday’s shootaround in Cleveland and wasn’t available for the Heat game either. He has been sidelined since the end of February with a sprained wrist that he initially sustained in the first month of the season.
While Ball made an unprecedented return this season from a knee cartilage transplant after missing 2½ seasons, he has played only 35 games entering the final weekend.