CHICAGO — Coby White drew roars from the crowd early on with vicious crossovers and spins toward the basket. He was so effective he had fans chanting his name as the final minutes ticked away.
It was that kind of night.
White scored a career-high 42 points, and the Chicago Bulls advanced in the play-in tournament, knocking out the Atlanta Hawks with a 131-116 victory on Wednesday.
White had never scored more than 37 points in a regular season or postseason game. But in a breakthrough season, he delivered his best performance to date.
“It was a dope moment for that to happen,” White said. “I’m thankful for the fans. It felt like a playoff vibe. The place was rocking tonight.”
Chicago visits Miami on Friday for a shot at the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs and a first-round matchup with Boston. The Heat lost 105-104 to Philadelphia on Wednesday.
Dejounte Murray led Atlanta with 30 points. But the Hawks came up short again after dropping their final six regular-season games.
Nikola Vucevic had 24 points and 12 rebounds for Chicago. DeMar DeRozan finished with 22 points and nine assists.
Ayo Dosunmu added 19 points after missing the final four regular-season games because of a bruised right quadricep.
But White stole the spotlight. He went hard at the rim and made 15 of 21 field goals in a game where the Bulls shot 56.8% from the field. He also had nine rebounds and six assists.
“I root for guys that work hard and are great people,” Murray said. “DeMar DeRozan’s a brother to me and he speaks highly of him. He says he works hard, he’s a great guy, he’s handled his business, he’s a professional on and off the floor. When I hear those things, I root for guys around the league just to have success. I think he’s always been good. He never really got the opportunity to showcase what he’s showcasing now, and the sky’s the limit.”
Atlanta’s Trae Young and Clint Capela each scored 22. Young, who missed 23 games late in the regular season because of a torn ligament in his left pinkie, had 10 assists but committed six turnovers. Capela grabbed 17 rebounds. Bogdan Bogdanovic added 21 points.
The Bulls were up 88-85 when Vucevic nailed a 3-pointer with 4:59 left in the third quarter to
kick off a 17-2 run.
White had the fans roaring when he scored on a neat spin around Young and fed a cutting Javonte Green for a dunk. White then scored on a layup following a block by Dalen Terry to make it 105-87 with 1:27 left in the third.
The Bulls led 40-22 after closing the first quarter on a 16-2 run, punctuated by Terry’s dunk off a steal by Alex Caruso. Young committed five turnovers in the period.
The Hawks quickly got back into it, reeling off 14 straight to start the second. The Bulls got the lead back up to 58-44 midway through the quarter when a rotating Dosunmu blocked De’Andre Hunter, drawing a huge roar from the crowd, and DeRozan broke for a three-point play.
The Hawks made another push near the end of the half, pulling within three in the closing minute. But Caruso answered an alley-oop dunk by Capela with a 3 and Chicago headed to the locker room with a 73-67 lead.
Caruso exited in the third quarter with a left ankle injury. Whether he’ll be ready to play against Miami was unclear.
“My mindset will be to play ‘til my body tells me I can’t,” he said.
Up next
Bulls: The Bulls and Heat split four games, with each team winning one on the road. Tipoff is slated for 1 p.m. H.S.T.
Butler out
several weeks
The results are in: Jimmy Butler is out.
Butler will not be able to play for the Miami Heat in a win-or-else game on Friday night against the Chicago Bulls in the NBA’s play-in tournament because of a right knee injury, one that will sideline him for several weeks.
An MRI exam on Thursday showed that he sprained the MCL ligament, an injury that typically takes at least four weeks or more to heal.
That means if Miami wins Friday, it still won’t have Butler for a Round 1 playoff matchup with the Boston Celtics — a daunting matchup even if Butler was healthy. Boston, the top playoff overall seed, finished 18 games ahead of Miami and went 3-0 against the Heat in the regular season.
“We will do this the hard way,” Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said in Philadelphia on Wednesday night, when Butler played most of the game after getting hurt and Miami lost 105-104 — missing out on a chance to be the No. 7 seed in the East. “That has to be the path right now.”
The path gets much harder now for the reigning Eastern Conference champions.
Butler was injured in the first quarter of the game in Philadelphia, grabbing at the knee in obvious pain and limping throughout the remainder of the contest — but staying in the game most of the way. He played 40 minutes, finishing with 19 points, four rebounds, five assists and five steals.
His mobility appeared to get worse as the game went along, and Spoelstra said postgame that Butler’s knee kept getting stiffer and stiffer. Butler was 2 for 4 from the floor when he got hurt — then just 3 for 14 in the remainder of the game.
“I thought the adrenaline would kick back in and I’d be able to move,” Butler said after the game. “And it just wasn’t the case. I wasn’t able to do anything on either side of the ball and I think I hurt us more than I helped us, actually.”
Butler’s absence on Friday will only add to serious injury issues for the Heat.
Miami has been without starting point guard Terry Rozier for two weeks because of a neck injury, and will play without him again on Friday. Shooting guard Duncan Robinson has missed 10 of Miami’s last 15 games with a back problem, and in the five games he did play in that stretch he was clearly affected — shooting only 6 for 26 (23%) from 3-point range. For his career, he’s a 40% shooter from beyond the arc.
“We’ve had experience with that,” Heat center Bam Adebayo said of playing shorthanded. “The biggest thing for us is to rally around each other and get the W.”
