CHICAGO — Coby White drew roars from the home crowd early in the game with vicious crossovers and spins toward the basket. He was so effective that he had fans chanting his name as the final minutes ticked away.
It was that kind of night.
White scored a career-high 42 points, and the Chicago Bulls advanced in the NBA's play-in tournament, knocking out the Atlanta Hawks with a 131-116 victory on Wednesday.
White had never scored more than 37 points in a regular-season or postseason game, but in a breakthrough season, he delivered his best performance to date.
"It was a dope moment for that to happen," White said. "I'm thankful for the fans. It felt like a playoff vibe. The place was rocking tonight."
Chicago will visit the Miami Heat on Friday for a shot at the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference for the playoffs and a first-round matchup with the Boston Celtics, who had the NBA's best record for the 2023-24 regular season. The Heat lost 105-104 to the host Philadelphia 76ers earlier Wednesday.
Dejounte Murray led Atlanta with 30 points, but the Hawks came up short again after dropping their final six regular-season games, and they will miss the playoffs for the first time since 2020. They reached the conference title series in 2021 but had first-round exits the past two years after making the playoffs via the play-in tourney both times.
Nikola Vucevic had 24 points and 12 rebounds for Chicago, DeMar DeRozan finished with 22 points and nine assists, and Ayo Dosunmu added 19 points after missing the final four regular-season games because of a bruised right quadricep.
White stole the spotlight, though. He went hard at the rim and finished 15-for-21 from the field in a game where the Bulls shot 56.8%. He also had nine rebounds and six assists.
"I root for guys that work hard and are great people," Murray said. "DeMar DeRozan's a brother to me, and he speaks highly of him. He says he works hard, he's a great guy, he's handled his business, he's a professional on and off the floor. When I hear those things, I root for guys around the league just to have success. I think he's always been good. He never really got the opportunity to showcase what he's showcasing now, and the sky's the limit."
Atlanta's Trae Young and Clint Capela scored 22 points apiece, with Capela also grabbing 17 rebounds. Young, who missed 23 games late in the regular season because of a torn ligament in his left pinkie, had 10 assists but committed six turnovers. Bogdan Bogdanovic added 21 points.
The Bulls were up 88-85 when Vucevic nailed a 3-pointer with 4:59 left in the third quarter to kick off a 17-2 run.
White had the fans roaring when he scored on a neat spin around Young and fed a cutting Javonte Green for a dunk. White then scored on a layup after a block by Dalen Terry to make it 105-87 with 1:27 left in the third.
The Bulls led 40-22 after closing the first quarter on a 16-2 run, punctuated by Terry's dunk off a steal by Alex Caruso. Young committed five turnovers in the period.
The Hawks quickly got back into it, reeling off 14 straight points to start the second quarter. The Bulls got the lead back up to 58-44 midway through the quarter when a rotating Dosunmu blocked De'Andre Hunter, drawing a huge roar from the crowd, and DeRozan broke for a three-point play.
The Hawks made another push near the end of the half, pulling within three in the closing minute, but Caruso answered an alley-oop dunk by Capela with a 3 and Chicago headed to the locker room with a 73-67 lead.
Caruso exited in the third quarter with a left ankle injury. Whether he'll be ready to play against Miami was unclear.
"My mindset will be to play till my body tells me I can't," he said.
AP photo by Chris Szagola / The Philadelphia 76ers' Joel Embiid, left, talks with the Miami Heat's Jimmy Butler after an NBA play-in tournament game Wednesday night.76ers 105, Heat 104
PHILADELPHIA — The 76ers needed all the improbable tricks they could summon to even have a chance at winning their first play-in game in team history.
Nicolas Batum hit game-shifting 3-pointers. Buddy Hield was in the mix. Even the promise of free chicken nuggets was enough to revive an offense and smother the boos from Philly fans that rained inside the Wells Fargo Center.
But in crunch time, the game came down to Joel Embiid. Just like it always does.
With last year's NBA MVP on the court, the 76ers proved they have a shot at a long postseason run as long as he's in the lineup.
Embiid had 23 points, 15 rebounds and one huge assist to Kelly Oubre Jr. on a go-ahead three-point play that led the Sixers past the Heat and into the playoffs.
"Lots of booing," Embiid said, smiling. "We stuck together. It just shows you that I don't play my best, I don't get to my spots the whole game until the fourth quarter, and we still find a way to win."
The Sixers earned the Eastern Conference's No. 7 seed and advanced to play the second-seeded New York Knicks in the first round, with the opener Saturday at Madison Square Garden.
The Heat — who went from the play-in tourney to the NBA Finals a year ago — host the Bulls on Friday night, with the winner getting the No. 8 seed and the loser's season over.
Embiid exploded out of a quiet game late in the fourth and carried the Sixers back from 14 down in the second half. Embiid, who missed 43 games during the regular season and finished out on a surgically repaired left knee, was a nonfactor as Batum and Hield sparked the 76ers in the second half. Batum had 20 points.
"We won the game because of them," Embiid said. "Those guys stepped up, and we won the game."
When the Sixers needed big buckets, though, who else was there but their big man?
Embiid buried a go-ahead 3-pointer from the top of the arc with 2:33 left in the game for a 93-91 lead that sent a crowd that had about booed the Sixers out of the building at the half- into a frenzy. After the Sixers blew that lead, Embiid again was clutch with a three-point play for a 96-94 lead.
With the game tied at 96, Miami's Tyler Herro was whistled for a backcourt violation. Embiid slipped the ball to Oubre under the basket for the bucket, the free throw and a 99-96 lead the hosts would not give up.
The Sixers played this one like it was a Game 7, and with good reason. They like their chances against the upstart Knicks rather than playing for the No. 8 seed and a date with the NBA's best, the Boston Celtics.
That's what Miami faces if it can get out of Friday's game and make the playoffs under this format for the second straight season.
Herro — who hit a 3 in the final second before the 76ers lost the ball out of bounds as time expired — finished with 25 points. Jimmy Butler, perhaps slowed by a first-half knee injury, had 19.
"We will do this the hard way," Heat coach Erik Spoelstra said. "That has to be the path right now. We're going to rest up, treat up, rally around each other up, get ready for Friday. Again, embrace these competitive games. It will be competitive in front of our home fans."
Butler had four steals in the first half, and gutted out two free throws after he slipped and appeared to tweak his right knee, perhaps a reason he scored only two points in the fourth quarter. Butler said he would need an MRI on Thursday.
"It felt like I couldn't do too much, which sucks with the timing of the game and everything," Butler said. "I hope that I'm fine. I hope that I wake up tomorrow and can still stick and move. Right now, I can't stay that's the case."
The Sixers rallied in the third, fueled perhaps by a free fast-food chicken promotion triggered when the Heat missed consecutive free throws with a nine-point lead.
With the crowd roaring for the first time all night, the Sixers took off, but not behind the usual suspects. Batum, acquired in the James Harden deal with the Los Angeles Clippers, instead hit three 3s in the quarter that edged the hosts within one possession of a tie game three times. Each time, the 76ers were stymied, none worse then when Embiid was stripped on a drive that could have knotted the game at 68. Kevin Love instead buried a 3, and the Heat took a 74-69 lead into the fourth.
There are no NBA games Thursday, but Friday will bring the third play-in doubleheader in four days before the playoffs begin with a busy weekend of four games each day.
In addition to Friday's Bulls-Heat matchup at 7 p.m. Eastern, the Western Conference's final playoff qualifier and No. 8 seed will be determined when the Sacramento Kings visit the New Orleans Pelicans at 9:30 p.m.
The Kings kept their playoff hopes alive when they eliminated the Golden State Warriors with a 118-94 play-in victory on Tuesday, the same night the Pelicans missed an opportunity to go straight to the playoffs when they lost to the Los Angeles Lakers, who clinched the No. 7 seed by winning 110-106.