MIAMI — It’s a professional postseason that, at the moment, has a bit of a college feel.

That’s because the Bulls are about to play their second “Win or Go Home” game in three days, just like they do in the NCAA Tournament.

With one successful elimination contest against the Raptors on Wednesday under their belt, the Bulls will try to keep their season alive for at least another week on Friday in Miami. That’s when they’ll face the Heat at 6 p.m. central time in the play-in tournament, with the winner earning the No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs.

That gets them a date with the top-seeded Bucks in the first round, with Game 1 at Fiserv Forum in Milwaukee set for Sunday at 4:30 p.m.

If Billy Donovan’s team wants to keep their season going, all they’ll have to do is keep up a trend from their regular season.

The Bulls faced the Heat three times over the past six months and beat them each time, including twice on their own home floor.

On Opening Night on October 19, the Bulls had a strong second half to knock off the Heat 116-108 with DeMar DeRozan leading the way with 37 points.

Just a little over two months later on December 20, it was Nikola Vucevic who was the star in the game in Miami, scoring 29 points as the Bulls outscored the Heat by 15 in the second half to win it 113-103.

DeRozan once again led the way in the team’s only match-up at the United Center in the 2022-2023 season, scoring 24 points as a big first half led to a 113-99 victory.

Not bad for a team that was 0-4 against the Heat the season before, but to be fair Miami’s success hasn’t been that of 2021-2022. A 53-win team that advanced to the Eastern Conference Finals a year ago, Miami had nine fewer victories this season and lost the chance to clinch a playoff spot against the eighth-seeded Heat on Tuesday.

Now they face elimination from the playoffs, just like the Bulls did on Wednesday in Toronto. If the visitors can keep up what they did against their opponent in the regular season, they’ll be back in the playoffs for a second-straight year.

Of course, this is the playoffs, and in this college elimination-type format, what happens in the regular season doesn’t always matter.