Bulls prepare to play Raptors in Play-In Tournament matchup
CHICAGO (CBS) – Last season, the Bulls held on for dear life and earned the 6-seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.
This season, they're in postseason purgatory, aka: the Play-In Tournament. CBS 2's Jori Parys had more on a team forced to truly take things one game at a time.
Patrick Beverley brought the energy at practice as the Bulls prepared for the Play-In Tournament against the Toronto Raptors, a team the Bulls went 1-2 against during the regular season. DeMar DeRozan was held to an average of 14 points per contest against the Raptors.
"If I was a coach, I'd try to limit DeMar and Zach (Lavine) as much as possible and have … others beat you, but it's gonna be most teams' gameplan going in," Beverley said. "It's the playoffs. You can't take away everything. You gotta give something up. We're ready. We're locked in."
Beverley, DeRozan, and Andre Drummond are the only Bulls players to have played in a Play-In Tournament game in its two-year existence. Despite facing a win-or-go home situation, Beverley said the mentality stays the same.
"When you have that kind of mindset every game, I play in 82 games is a game seven," Beverley said. "It's a lot of pressure on a lot of people but it's a regular game baby, it's a regular game."
As for the opportunity to now help the Bulls secure its first Play-In win, Beverley said he feels fortunate and playing for his hometown team "never gets old."