With regular season over, Bulls look forward to high stakes game in Toronto
Asked about Wednesday's do-or-die play-in game at Toronto, Patrick Beverley started talking salaries.
Specifically, he was referring to Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, who all made at least $22 million this season.
"That's where you make your money," Beverley said. "That's why you pay them the big bucks, to come out and represent. The teams I've been on in the past, max guys, they've done so and I don't expect anything different from this group."
Nobody took the final game of the regular season off. Beverley, LaVine and DeRozan played into the third quarter of Sunday's 103-81 victory over the Detroit Pistons at the United Center. Vucevic and Patrick Williams played in all 82 games, something no Bulls player had done since the 2014-15 season.
After the game, Pistons coach Dwane Casey told reporters he was done as head coach and would move into a front-office role. Detroit finished with the league's worst record at 17-65.
The Bulls finished 40-42, which isn't great, but they'll have a chance to both make the playoffs and win the draft lottery. With the league's 12th-worst record, the Bulls will get a 1.5% chance to land the No. 1 pick. If they don't get extremely lucky in the lottery and move up to the top four, their pick goes to Orlando to complete the Vucevic trade.
The more immediate task is playing at Toronto for the 10 vs. 9 play-in game. The winner on Wednesday moves on to face the loser of Atlanta at Miami on Friday with the No. 8 playoff seed at stake. Wednesday's loser goes home, season over.
Told about Beverley's comment, LaVine laughed and said, "Sounds like a Pat response. It's nothing for me to be told or I have to hear. We understand that we have to go out there, regardless of who you are or how you play, go out there and win the game."
The most obvious storyline to Bulls vs. Raptors is DeRozan spent the first nine years of his career in Toronto before being traded To San Antonio for Kawhi Leonard in 2018.
"I will never be a villain in Toronto," DeRozan said. "The atmosphere's going to feel like it's an Eastern Conference finals game in a play-in game, so it's definitely going to be crazy. Driving to the arena, walking into the arena, you're definitely going to feel it. That's the beauty of that place and those fans and any competitor would want to be a part of that for sure."
After sitting out Friday's game in Dallas, LaVine played 26 minutes and scored 17 points against the Pistons. DeRozan had 16 points in 24 minutes.
The Bulls did a nice job in the fourth quarter, outscoring the Pistons 36-17 using a lineup of all subs. Carlik Jones, who was given his G League MVP trophy before the game, scored 11 points, rookie Dalen Terry had 10 and Mark Simonovic doubled his previous season output by scoring 4 points.
The Pistons, who only suited up nine players, had at least some starters on the floor during the fourth.
After earning the No. 6 seed last year and returning to the playoffs after a five-year absence, this season was unquestionably disappointing for the Bulls. They never recovered from losing Lonzo Ball at the midpoint of last season.
They've won road games against some of the NBA's best teams, lost plenty of close games and didn't show up against weaker opponents at times.
"You'd like to be in a situation where you're in the playoffs," coach Billy Donovan said. "(But) I think this group has stayed together. They've tried to work through things, they've tried to get better. I think the consistency part was a challenge this year."
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