Finding the right rhythm for the Chicago Bulls offense to get in night in and night out could take a lot of pressure off shooting guard Zach LaVine.
An absolutely gigantic night in the scoring column for the Chicago Bulls 24-year-old shooting guard Zach LaVine led to one of the most exciting finishes in a win over the Charlotte Hornets back on Nov. 23. This was a much-needed win for the Bulls, who came into that matchup against the Hornets in a whole lot of turmoil between LaVine and the coaching staff.
In a career night for LaVine, that set a modern NBA record for three-pointers made in a game from a player that wasn’t one of the Golden State Warriors “Splash Brothers”, the Bulls wound up topping the Hornets by a slim margin of 116-115. But to notch that one point victory over the Hornets, the Bulls needed 49 points from Lavine on a last second turnover and game-winning three-pointer.
What makes this situation with LaVine and the Bulls so much more interesting is the feuding that went down with head coach Jim Boylen less than 24 points before he went off against the Hornets. In the Bulls 116-108 Nov. 22 loss to the Miami Heat, Boylen wound up benching LaVine early in the first quarter. And Boylen cited defensive errors as his reasoning for sitting him down.
However, it didn’t look as if LaVine was really that bad on defense, and the Bulls were down by at least a 20-point margin for much of the first and second quarters anyway. The Heat took a 24-point lead into the locker at the United Center at halftime against the Bulls.
A big night from LaVine defensively wouldn’t have saved anyone from the hot start that the Heat came out with and the lackluster effort from the entire Bulls rotation on both ends of the floor. Although the Bulls did make a good push in the second half, it was too little too late against a double-digit win Heat team that sits near the top of the Eastern Conference standings.
Coming into the Nov. 23 matchup against the Hornets, and the second leg of back-to-back games, LaVine gave this Bulls team that exact production they needed to bounce back to some degree. Losing the way they did to the Heat and the locker room turmoil and continued dysfunction that ensued called for a much-needed victory to draw the Bulls to a record of 6-11 heading out of the weekend.
But even that huge scoring night for LaVine (49 points on 13-of-17 shooting from three-point range) didn’t bring his numbers on the season even close to where they sat at last year. He averaged around 24.0 points per game to go along with five assists and five rebounds last season.
He’s not even over 20.0 points per game this season and his player efficiency rating (currently sitting at 14.7) dropped by more than three points since last season.
It was nice to see this outburst from LaVine scoring and pushing the Bulls one step closer to a playoff spot in the East (but that is partly thanks to how weak the East is this season). Yet, LaVine isn’t going to make that many difficult shots and stay scorching from downtown, like he was against the Hornets, each game the Bulls have moving forward.
If the pressure cooker that is the Bulls locker room and the strenuous relationship between LaVine and Boylen calmed down for the time being, maybe this team can get in the right side of the win column through the rest of this month. They have a very winnable game coming up on Nov. 25 against the sliding Portland Trail Blazers.
If the Bulls come out with a total team effort, then it could go a long way to helping the momentum of this squad and keep too much pressure from falling on LaVine’s shoulders to make this offense go.