The regular season is over as Bulls secured the last playoff berth

(Basketball news) The Chicago Bulls clinched the last playoff position as they beat the Minnesota Timberwolves 124-120. For the Bulls, Troy Brown Jr. added 17 points and 11 rebounds as Patrick Williams scored a career-high 35 points and Ayo Dosunmu had 26 points in a season-high 45 minutes. For the Wolves, Nathan Knight had 17 points and eight rebounds and Jaylen Nowell added 15 points. With this result the Bulls secured 6th place in the Eastern Conference standings as they will face the No. 3 seed Milwaukee in the first round. Chicago, which has returned to the playoffs after a four-year absence, shared the East's best record with Miami at the All-Star break they fell off the pace and too many inconsistencies in their performances dropped them to 6th in the standings.

''We have to maintain a high level of competitive fight. They're champions for a reason,'' coach Billy Donovan said. ''They're battle-tested.''

''It's a good first step. This needs to be the foundation of what we're trying to build, and regardless of what happens from here, we've got a lot of things that we've learned,'' coach Chris Finch said.

''I was running a lot of things at him tonight to try to get him to be like that,'' Donovan said. ''He took it upon himself to do the things that he did, even randomly.'

The Lakers finished off their season with a consolation victory over the Denver Nuggets 146-141 after overtime. For the Lakers, Malik Monk had a career-best 41 points and Austin Reaves set career highs with 31 points, 16 rebounds and 10 assists as Wenyen Gabriel had 14 points and 10 rebounds. LeBron James, Anthony Davis and Russell Westbrook did not play the last match as this was also Frank Vogel’s last game in charge, he leaves the golden and purple after 3 seasons and won an NBA championship in 2020. For the Nuggets, Markus Howard had a career-high 25 points and Bryn Forbes scored 24 . With this result the Nuggets face the Golden State warriors in the first round of playoff matches.

''My reaction is I haven't been told (anything) and I'm going to enjoy tonight's game,'' Vogel said when asked about the report. ''Celebrate what these young guys did in terms of scratching and clawing and getting back in this game. We'll deal with tomorrow tomorrow.''

''He gave me a chance,'' Monk said. ''This was the only team that called me in the offseason. I have nothing bad to say about him. All praise goes to him. If it wasn't for him I wouldn't have a chance to play basketball. I probably wouldn't be here, so kudos to Frank.''

''This is real basketball,'' Denver's DeMarcus Cousins said. ''This is when talent has to come out. The regular season is one thing, you kind of go through the motions to get through it and be successful.''

Season's over, no one got hurt tonight,'' Malone said. ''We'll focus on moving forward and preparing for Golden State.''

The other results were: