After beating the Portland Trail Blazers on March 18, the Chicago Bulls were tantalizingly close to surpassing the .500 mark for the first time in more than a year.
Then they dropped three straight, but the slide did not cost them the ninth spot in the Eastern Conference. The Bulls attempt to solidify their standing in the third play-in spot Friday night when they visit the Brooklyn Nets.
The Bulls (35-38) head into their second visit to Brooklyn four games behind the eighth-place Philadelphia Sixers and 4 1/2 behind the seventh-place Miami Heat. They began Thursday with a 1 1/2-game edge on the 10th-place Atlanta Hawks, and the margin might have been greater if the Bulls did not follow up their 110-107 win over Portland with double-digit losses to the Houston Rockets and Boston Celtics and a 107-105 setback to the Washington Wizards on Monday.
The Bulls avoided a four-game slide with a 125-99 rout of the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.
DeMar DeRozan scored 27 p...
