The Chicago Bulls needed overtime to escape the United Center with a victory over the lowly Toronto Raptors, but a win is a win, and with a 40-10 record, the Bulls are guaranteed to exit the week with the NBA's best record. Their chief competition, the Miami Heat, take on the Oklahoma City Thunder on the road on Sunday night, and a loss by the Heat (35-11) would drop them to 3.5 games back of the Bulls in the race for the East's top spot.
The Bulls are 10.5 games ahead of the Indiana Pacers in the Central Division, and with that "race" having as little suspense as humanly possible, the other thing that Bulls fans can keep an eye on is the race for the Eastern Conference's eighth seed. Right now, that spot is occupied the New York Knicks (24-25), but they are only two games behind the Boston Celtics (25-22) and 2.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Bucks (22-26), and Boston has one of the toughest schedules in the NBA heading down the stretch.
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