Chicago Bulls: Play-in game at Raptors TV schedule, details

Wednesday night, the Chicago Bulls will officially play the most meaningful game of their 2022-2023 campaign. Billy Donovan and the boys are in Toronto to take on the Raptors in the first game of their NBA Play-in Tournament journey.

Finishing with the 10th seed in the Eastern Conference, the Bulls held on and found a way into the postseason, kind of.

The top six seeds in each conference are in, for sure, but the seeds from 7-10 will play in the somewhat-newer format the league introduced a few years back: The play-in tournament.

Chicago’s first game is a do-or-die matchup in Toronto.

The Chicago Bulls take on the Toronto Raptors Wednesday, April 12 on ESPN

Where: Scotiabank Arena, Toronto, ON

When: 6PM CST

TV: ESPN

If the Bulls pull off a win over Toronto, then they will play the loser of the other initial play-in game between the Atlanta Hawks and Miami Heat.

Chicago went 3-0 against the Heat this year, while splitting the season series with Atlanta, 2-2.

One might believe the Bulls would want the Heat, based on those numbers. But, there’s another factor which recently came into play. While Atlanta’s season is still not technically over yet, a report came out that stated the Hawks’ front office has “green-lit” the organization to make offseason moves.

Those moves could possibly include trading guard Trae Young, too, believe it or not.

It’s funny timing for a team that isn’t even done, yet. Will that impact Young, or the Hawks, in their play-in tournament? It’s a lot of noise to handle, so we’ll see.

Meanwhile, the winner of that Hawks and Heat matchup will clinch the 7th seed, going on to play the 2-seeded Boston Celtics in the first round.

Should the Bulls make it out of the play-in tournament and clinch the 8th seed, they will have a date with the Milwaukee Bucks, a very, very familiar foe. While the Bucks knocked Chicago out of the postseason in five games last year, this is still a team the Bulls know well.

Chicago is healthy, and they really don’t have much else to lose, heading toward an off-season that could end up seeing some change, like Atlanta. Could they give the Bucks a good fight? We’ll see.