Battle for the Eighth Seed: Where the Bulls and Raptors Stand

With exactly one week and five games left in the season and only one more playoff seed remaining, the Raptors and the Bulls are going to be fighting for their right to continue their season.

The Raptors are still leading in the playoff picture by one game, so the Bulls will have to find a way to win at least two more contests than the Raptors to make it into the playoffs. The Bulls can thank the tiebreaker that the Raptors own for their uphill battle to win two games in this final stretch.

Both teams didn't make it any easier on each other on Tuesday as they lost to playoff- bound squads. The Bulls lost to a Bucks team, 79-74, that has been hot since the All-Star break. The Raptors fell to the number one seeded Cavaliers team,113-101, that has been streaking all season long. 

With Chris Bosh out indefinitely thanks to multiple fractures on his face, the Raptors will be on a tough five game series against the Celtics, Hawks, and Bulls.

The injury to Bosh will be a big deal since the Raptors will now have to play with the little-known Reggie Evans at power forward.

To make matters worse, the starting small forward for the Raptors, Antoine Wright, also left the game against the Cavaliers with an injury. Fortunately, Wright has only a low ankle sprain and will return as a sixth man for the rest of the year.

Now will be time for the inconsistent Hedo Turkoglu to start heating up from the field and live up to his contract.

For the Bulls, they have some banged up players, but not any serious injuries as the Raptors have on their team. For the rest of the season, the Bulls need to rely on Luol Deng and Joakim Noah to play in All-Star caliber form.

Both schedules for the Raptors and the Bulls seem very similar for the rest of the season. However, the Bulls have the misfortune of not playing weaker teams like New York and Detroit.

Both teams play top seeds in Atlanta and Boston for the Raptors, while the Bulls play  Cleveland and Boston.

The game that might just decide the playoffs is on April 11th, when these two teams battle each other. Even though the Raptors do face less current playoff teams, they are still going to be playing with a shorthanded team and a weak offensive lineup for the remainder of the season.

Even though both teams have had their ups and downs during this season and have struggled a lot recently, they can still make it up during this next week.

Look for a great and hard-fought matchup between the two come April 11th, with not only a win on the line but the eighth spot in the playoffs, as well.

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For more on this writer and to see his predictions for the last spot in the playoffs read The Sports Dish  (http://www.thesportsdish.com)