Charlotte Hornets Surge While Chicago Bulls Sink in Play-in Picture

Chicago Sun-Times Bulls beat reporter Joe Cowley recently flexed his funny bone on X, weaving a reference to a former best picture Oscar winner into this horror-movie ending of a Bulls season.

Imagining himself in Chicago coach Billy Donovan's position, Cowley suggested how he’d proceed after the campaign concludes April 12.

Cue a GIF of Tom Hanks’ “Forrest Gump” running like hell.

Perhaps in light of the Donovan-to-North-Carolina coaching rumors and Jaden Ivey catastrophe, the Bulls haven’t been at their typical middling best lately. They won’t stretch their Eastern Conference play-in tournament streak to four seasons, leaving a spot for a climbing East counterpart eager to use it as a stepping stone.

What’s more, the Charlotte Hornets also share something with Gump’s Mama: They care about their schoolin’.

Charlotte enters Thursday’s visit from likely West play-in participant Phoenix with wins in six of the past eight games.

The run includes double-digit victories against Miami, Orlando and New York, who each will be part of the East play-in or postseason field in some form.

After closing the weekend with consecutive home losses to playoff-bound Philadelphia and Boston, the Hornets responded how teams in their position should: By rolling past slumping Brooklyn by 31 points on Tuesday.

Brandon Miller scored 25 points, Miles Bridges added 19 and Moussa Diabate notched a 10-point, 12-rebound double-double.

“One of the things we learned is playing really good teams, especially at this point in the year -- meaningful games -- there’s carryover whether you win or whether you lose,” Hornets coach Charles Lee said. “You have to move on quickly. Because the opponent is going to be a high-level team and you can’t dwell on what happened the night before, win or lose.

“You have to learn a lesson and move on quickly.”

Mathematically, the 10th-place Hornets still could secure a top-six seed in the conference and avoid the play-in altogether, although ceding head-to-head tiebreakers to Philadelphia and Miami presents additional roadblocks.

Looking too far ahead would seem to contradict Lee’s words, anyway.

Remaining in play-in position offers a chance to reinforce the importance of resiliency, though.

Under the format (Bulls fans would know), the No. 10 team visits the No. 9 seed, with the loser eliminated. The winner gets a last chance at the playoff draw -- and first licks at the conference leaders -- by facing the loser of the No. 8 at No. 7 seed game.

The winner of the 8-7 game receives the No. 7 seed.

Charlotte opened the season with losses in 14 of its first 18 games but has played 14 games over .500 since a Nov. 28 victory against the Bulls.

Hornets reserve guard Coby White, a North Carolina native and UNC alumnus, played for the Bulls then. Now he’s a trade-deadline acquisition who has fit in smoothly to a backcourt rotation that includes Rookie of the Year contender Kon Knueppel.

“We have a lot of guys that can put the ball in the basket and we play an unselfish brand of basketball, so that helps a lot,” White said. “When you’ve got guys that make shots and you move the ball, it’s easy to have multiple guys in double figures.

"That’s kind of what we look for when we play -- is play together, move the ball and let the guys make plays.”

For Charlotte, it’s a learning experience worth embracing into the future. Leave the running to the Bulls -- and likely Donovan.