For the first time since the 2016-17 season, the Chicago Bulls are going to the playoffs.
The Cleveland Cavaliers' Tuesday night loss to the Orlando Magic clinched the Bulls a top-six seed in the Eastern Conference for the 2021-22 campaign — and thus, a spot above the play-in tournament fray.
The last time the Bulls made the postseason, Jimmy Butler, Dwyane Wade and Rajon Rondo led a 41-41 squad to the eighth seed. That team fell in six games to the top-seeded Celtics in the first round in 2017.
This year’s Bulls' first-round opponent has yet to be determined. With three games left in the regular season, the Bulls are teetering between fifth and sixth in the conference — and with the East’s top four seeds separated by just three games, more matchup shuffling could occur before the campaign concludes on Sunday.
But however the season ends, it was a seismic step forward for a franchise that has wandered the wilderness since they entered a rebuild by trading Butler to the Minnesota Timberwolves following its last playoff berth.
The Bulls have significantly increased their win total in each of the two seasons since overhauling its front office and coaching staff by installing Artūras Karnišovas and Billy Donovan to lead each department. In the 2020-21 season, they amassed a 31-41 record in a condensed, 72-game schedule — nine more than their 22 victories in 2019-20.
This season, they have 45 and counting.
