Chicago Bulls: Zach LaVine, Devin Booker among season’s best matchups
The Chicago Bulls and Phoenix Suns will see a matchup of star shooting guards take place on Feb. 22 between Zach LaVine and Devin Booker.
On Feb. 22, head coach Jim Boylen and the Chicago Bulls will continue their quest to right the ship as they take on the Phoenix Suns at home at the United Center. The Bulls are possibly starting their quest to tank given how their fortunes could look out of the All-Star Break. This team just keeps going from bad to worse.
The Bulls are coming off a putrid performance most of the way against the Charlotte Hornets at the United Center on Feb. 20 in a loss by the final score of 103-93. That moved the Bulls record on the season to a dreary 19-37. The Bulls continue to fall on the wrong side of the record column, now sitting on a seven-game losing streak.
At this point, the Bulls have moved five games behind the Orlando Magic for the eight seed in the Eastern Conference playoff picture. They’re also now seven games behind the Brooklyn Nets for the seven seed in the East.
Meanwhile, the Suns come into this game with a record of 22-34. The commonality that the Bulls and Suns share in their respective conferences is how far they’re falling out of the playoff picture. Both teams also have their star scorers at the same position in the starting five.
The most intriguing matchup in this showdown between the Bulls and Suns on Saturday night will come between the shooting guards. Devin Booker of the Suns wound up as a first-time All-Star selection after the injury to the Portland Trail Blazers superstar point guard Damian Lillard. That could add some fire to the motivation of Bulls shooting guard Zach LaVine tonight.
LaVine got slighted for the All-Star Game, despite the weekend of events being hosted at the United Center in Chicago. All Lavine participated in during All-Star Weekend was the 3-Point Contest, which he was eliminated from after the first round.
So far this season, Booker is averaging 26.3 points per game, 4.2 rebounds, and 6.4 assists, while shooting 49.5 percent from the field and 35.5 percent from beyond the arc. Booker is also shooting better than 92 percent from the free-throw line and posting a player efficiency rating of 20.6. He also has an impressive 5.6 win shares on the season.
Meanwhile, LaVine is averaging 25.2 points per game, 4.9 rebounds, and 4.2 assists, while shooting 44.7 percent from the field and 38.1 percent from beyond the arc. LaVine also has a player efficiency rating of 19.7 and 4.1 win shares on the season.
A big looming question in this game will be which of these two volume scoring shooting guards will be able to defend better. LaVine is posting a career-best 110 defensive rating and -0.8 defensive box plus/minus rating. He’s also well past his previous career high in defensive win shares, now with 2.1 on the season.
Yet, the fact that LaVine is posting a career-best in defensive rating and defensive box plus/minus this season with those numbers sheds a bad light on his previous production on that end of the floor.
Although LaVine is usually a slight net-negative on the defensive end of the floor, Booker is actually worse. Booker has a defensive rating of 114 and a defensive box plus/minus rating of -1.9 so far this season. He also has just 1.1 defensive win shares.
Moreover, LaVine and Booker share rather similar box plus/minus and value over replacement player ratings. Each sits within the realm of those ratings between 1.5-2.0. The 6-foot-6 ultra-athletic LaVine and 6-foot-5 star scorer Booker could shoot the lights out in this game, especially with weaker defense coming from each player.
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All in all, the Bulls do need a win here if there’s anyone in the organization that is still trying to push for the playoffs. If not, losing this game will move them one step closer to a losing streak in the double-digits. This is the first of back-to-back games at home for the Bulls this weekend, as they’re taking on fellow star shooting guard Bradley Beal and the Washington Wizards on Feb. 23 at 6 p.m. at the United Center.