Evan Turner wants Bulls matchup

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INDIANAPOLIS -- Philadelphia 76ers guard Evan Turner wants to face the Chicago Bulls in a first-round series.

The second-year swingman made that clear while discussing the potential first-round series between the Sixers and Bulls. When asked what it would mean to face the Bulls, the Chicago native told the Delaware County Times, "It means we're dodging the tougher team. That's what I think."

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Heading into the final day of the regular season Thursday, the Sixers are on track to face the Bulls in the Eastern Conference quarterfinals. That's a matchup that Turner is looking forward to.

"I think we'll be able to compete well against Chicago," Turner told the Times, "and have an opportunity to win the series."

After catching heat for a few days, Turner said in a tweet Thursday: "And bulls fans: please stop tweeting me about the playoffs. I didn't say anything negative. All I said is we match up better with them."

Turner's comments were met by a collective shoulder shrug in the Bulls' locker room Wednesday night.

"Well, all right," Bulls guard Kyle Korver said. "I'm not going to get into a war of words with Evan Turner. All right, come play us."

Korver believes the Bulls will be ready no matter which team they face.

"Our goal is to win a championship," Korver said. "We don't care who we play, first round, second round, third round, we want to go through everybody. That's our mindset. We don't want to go around anybody. We got the one seed and we're ready for whoever's eight."

Derrick Rose had the same mindset as well.

"There's been teams that said they want to play us before," Rose said. "So I don't got nothing to say about it."

Joakim Noah just smiled and took the comments in stride.

"That's cool," Noah said.

When asked why the comments didn't bother him, Noah took the "one game at a time approach" that Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau always preaches.

"Why doesn't it bother me?" Noah said. "At the end of the day you've got to go out there and play the game, so we're only worried about us right now and we'll worry about Evan Turner when we need to worry about Evan Turner, if ... God willing."

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Nick Friedell | email

Chicago Bulls beat reporter

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Nick Friedell is the Chicago Bulls beat reporter for ESPNChicago.com and ESPN 1000. He joined the staff in April of 2009 after serving as an editor and contributor for Yahoo! Sports.