On April 18, Beijing time, Game 2 of the 2023-24 NBA Eastern Conference Playoffs kicked off as scheduled, with the Chicago Bulls hosting the Atlanta Hawks. The two teams locked up the 9th and 10th places early in the regular season, and they were unable to fight back to achieve higher rankings, and they were not overtaken by other teams, and the Hawks ended the regular season with a wave of six consecutive defeats in this desireless state. In the first play-off game, the 76ers narrowly beat the Heat by one point to advance first, and the winner of this play-off game will challenge the Heat away to fight for the 8th place in the East, and then go to the test of the Celtics, the first place in the East. In this game, Johnson and Bey are absent from the Hawks, and the Bulls are LaVine and Williams who are exempt.
In the first quarter, the home team was in better shape, with a wave of attack waves full of firepower inside and outside the line quickly opened up the difference, and the Hawks main player Trae Young was in a rather sluggish state, shooting 0 of 3 shots, and there were 5 turnovers! The Bulls scored 5 3-pointers in this quarter, and the inside line resolutely attacked the basket, only conceded 3 shots under the basket, and scored 40 points in a single quarter! The Hawks got a lot of opportunities to shoot outside this quarter, but they had no choice but to feel poor, and only shot 1 ball and 8 times! At the end of the first quarter, the Bulls led by 18 points at 40-22!
In the second quarter, the Hawks chased 6 points in a row, and then Zhuang Shen injured his teammate Caruso, and Matthews scored 3 points again, with a 9-point difference! After that, the Hawks continued to chase down to only 4 points, after Trae Young re-appeared, the effect of the Hawks' double core led the team was average, the Bulls seized the opportunity to return a wave of small climaxes to open the difference, DeRozan hit the basket in a row, and the difference came to 14 points; in adversity, Trae Young overcame his demons, and hit the first shot of the game with a knife on the outside, Capela hooked his hand to score, and the difference returned to single digits again; Caruso reappeared, but continuously sent Trae Young to the free throw line. Trae Young scored nine points on 1-of-2 shooting and 6-of-7 free throws in the quarter, along with four assists leading his team to just three points. Caruso hit a buzzer-beating 3-pointer to end the first half, and the Hawks recovered 12 points in the quarter to give the Bulls a six-point lead at 73-67;
Yibian fought again, the situation in this section suddenly changed, the Hawks suddenly lost power, the outside 3-point shot only 2 of 9 shots, the inside line also encountered the restrictions of the Bulls and frequently hit the iron, the whole team scored 22 points in a single quarter; the Bulls combined inside and outside, but the focus was on the impact of the restricted area, the basket in this quarter was not missing, and got a lot of free throw opportunities, the whole team scored 45 points in a single quarter. At the end of the third quarter, the Bulls led by 18 points at 110-92;
In the final quarter, the defensive intensity of the two teams escalated again, Hunter broke through the basket and hit, and White threw in response! After that, the two sides continued to play iron, and White broke through the layup again to break the ball drought, and the difference also came to 20 points! Bogdan made 2 free throws and 2 hits, and the Bulls asked for a timeout; after the timeout, the Bulls firmly held the lead, and the Hawks were unable to reverse the defeat, and the score was fixed at 131-116. The Bulls will compete with the Heat for 8th place in the East, and the Hawks' season journey is over, and there will be no small number of personnel changes this offseason!
Statistics:
Bulls: White 42 points, 9 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals, setting a new career high scoring record!Vucevic 24 points and 12 boards, DeRozan 22 points, 9 assists and 6 boards, Dosum 19 points and 3 assists, Green 10 points, 6 rebounds and 4 assists, Caruso 6 points, 2 rebounds and 2 assists, Terry 4 points and 5 boards, Zhuang Shen 4 points and 4 boards;
Hawks: Murray 30 points, 7 rebounds, 6 assists and 2 steals, Capela 22 points, 17 rebounds and 4 assists, Trae Young 22 points, 10 assists and 2 boards, Bogdan 21 points, 5 rebounds, 4 assists, 2 steals and 2 blocks, Hunter 8 points, 4 assists and 2 boards, Garrison Matthews 8 points, Fernando 5 points.