A huge last two games from rookie point guard Coby White got the Chicago Bulls to finally snap their losing streak last weekend against the Wizards.
For the first time in quite a while, the Chicago Bulls got on the right side of the win column. A lot of the Feb. 23 win they raked in during a back-to-back set of games at the United Center by the final score of 126-117 over the Washington Wizards was due to the play of rookie former North Carolina Tar Heels point guard Coby White.
According to a report from Eric Woodyard of ESPN, this breakout from White over the weekend was the first rookie reserve to do what he did in NBA history. That report from Woodyard also showed that White credited his performance to his hair. This scoring outburst from White was also the first by any Bulls rookie (starting or coming off the bench) since Michael Jordan.
White and Jordan are the only two Bulls rookies in franchise history to have two 30+ point games in a row.
K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago posted on his Twitter timeline on Feb. 23 to confirm that Coby’s outburst over the course of the last two games was the first of its nature by any rookie reserves in NBA history.
Per Bulls PR postgame notes and according to Elias Sports Bureau, Coby White is 1st rookie reserve in NBA history to post consecutive 30-point games.
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) February 24, 2020
The fact that White only has 0.4 win shares on the season so far means that these last two outings have to encompass at least one-quarter of his positive numbers in that category. He was a net-positive player in both games (combining as a +23 when he was on the floor in total). Each game saw him post 33 points.
While White did combine to post 10 turnovers in the last two games, he also had a good number of rebounds and steals. He combined for nine rebounds and three steals during that span of games. White also saw his playing time steadily creep up of late. Those two games saw him combine for more than 67 minutes on the floor. And he started neither game.
So far this season, White is averaging 11.9 points per game, 3.5 rebounds, and 2.4 assists, while shooting 38.0 percent from the field and 34.7 percent from beyond the arc. His three-point shooting percentage is finally starting to climb above 35.0. And hopefully he can get his field goal percentage above 40 by the end of his rookie campaign.