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Bulls' playoff chase continues against Sixers

Mar 26, 2008 - 1:53 PM Chicago (28-42) at Philadelphia (36-35) 7:00 pm EDT

PHILADELPHIA (Ticker) - The Chicago Bulls would not mind trading places with the Philadelphia 76ers.

While the Sixers sit in sixth place and appear headed for the Eastern Conference playoffs, the Bulls are two games behind eighth-place Atlanta.

However, the Bulls closed the gap on the Hawks with a 103-94 victory over Atlanta on Tuesday.

Chicago went into the game having lost four of its previous five games, but used Drew Gooden's season-high 31 points to pull out the much-needed victory. The Bulls are 5-7 in their last 12 games.

The Sixers are one of the hottest teams in the league, running their record in March to 10-2 with a 95-90 victory at Boston on Monday. Andre Iguodala scored 10 consecutive points in a 19-0 run as Philadelphia rallied from a 11-point deficit with 8:20 remaining in the fourth quarter.

"I think we still have to have that mentality like we're a team that's still under .500 and still fighting," Iguodala said. "It's not over yet. We've gotten to a point where we want to be, which is over .500, but we still don't have an 'X' by our name to signify a playoff berth."

The Sixers won just five of their first 18 games and were 18-30 seven weeks ago, but are now one-half game ahead of Toronto in the East.