The Chicago Bulls have continued to hold steady in the latest ESPN weekly NBA power rankings, remaining at No. 21 overall after punching their ticket to the league’s 2024 play-in tournament. Just ahead of the Brooklyn Nets and just behind the Atlanta Hawks, the Bulls are perhaps ranked a little low given their recent play.

“The Bulls officially locked their spot in the play-in tournament on Tuesday night in ironic fashion after a loss to the Hawks, as that pairing almost certainly will constitute the East’s Nos. 9-10 play-in matchup,” writes ESPN analyst Jamal Collier of Chicago’s ranking this week.

“Chicago currently holds the No. 9 seed and the tiebreaker, which would give it home-court advantage in that single-elimination postseason contest.”

“However, the Bulls’ lead over Atlanta has dwindled to just half a game, and they face the (New York) Knicks three times and the (Orlando) Magic once in their last six games of the regular season,” adds the ESPN analyst.

It’s certainly possible that Chicago makes their play-in path tougher with such a murderer’s row to close out the system. But at the very least, they have also managed to make it there in the first place, which did not seem very assured even as recently as a week ago.

Story originally appeared on Lonzo Wire