The Chicago Bulls will face the visiting Boston Celtics in a crucial NBA Cup game on Friday.
Boston, Chicago and Atlanta are 2-1 in the Eastern Conference Group C standings. Cleveland is 1-1 and Washington is 0-3.
The Bulls will be the Group C champions if they beat the Celtics and the Hawks beat the Cavaliers on Friday night. Chicago has the tiebreaker over Atlanta based on their head-to-head victory over the Hawks.
If Chicago and Cleveland win on Friday, the Bulls would also finish first in Group C if the Cavaliers lose to the Wizards on Tuesday. That scenario would leave Chicago as the only team with a 3-1 record in Group C.
If the Bulls and Cavs finish with a 3-1 record, Cleveland will be the Group C champion based on its head-to-head victory against Chicago. The Bulls would need to win the point differential tiebreaker against other non-group champion teams with a 3-1 record to earn the Eastern Conference’s only wild card spot.
A win over Chicago plus a Cleveland win over Atlanta would give the Celtics the Group C championship. Boston owns the tiebreaker against Cleveland because the Celtics beat the Cavaliers 120-117 on Nov. 19.
“Ultimately, we want to win,” said Boston’s Neemias Queta. “It doesn’t matter if it’s an (NBA Cup) game or a regular-season game, we strive for excellence every time we step on the court.”
The Bulls are coming off Wednesday’s 133-119 loss to the Magic. Ayo Dosunmu led the Bulls with 21 points, and Nikola Vucevic added 19 points and 11 rebounds.
Chicago’s Lonzo Ball returned to action against the Magic after missing 15 games with a sprained wrist. He scored six points and had four steals and two blocks in 15 minutes.
“It was really good to have him back,” Chicago coach Billy Donovan said. “I think he’s going to help us. I give him a lot of credit for the work he did to get back ready to play. It’s amazing to me that he can come out the first night and play as well as he did in a limited amount of time.”
Boston has not played since Monday’s 126-94 win over the Los Angeles Clippers. That game marked the season debut for Boston’s Kristaps Porzingis, who had been recovering from offseason foot surgery.
Porzingis had 16 points and six rebounds in 23 minutes against the Clippers.
“I felt better than expected,” Porzingis said. “Obviously, the first breath is pretty crazy, you know, burning in your lungs, burning in your legs, everything. But after that, it was decent and normal. It’s been killing me inside not being able to be out there, but it was worth it.” worth the wait.”
Porzingis also had two of Boston’s season-high 11 blocked shots during the win.
“We’ve got to get better at protecting the rim, which we saw a little bit (Monday),” Boston coach Joe Mazzulla said. “I think when we’re fully healthy, it allows us to play different formations, like more big two situations where protecting the rim is easier because of the type of versatility we have.”
Monday’s victory extended Boston’s winning streak to six games. The Celtics are 8-1 on the road this season, while the Bulls are 2-6 at home.
–Field level media
