Chicago Bulls: Grading Zach LaVine’s dog’s defense

In a recent viral video, Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine took his dog on in a one-on-one battle. Here’s how his dog held up on the defensive end.

In this weird time of social distancing and quarantining, NBA players are providing entertainment to hoops fans in unique ways. Some are streaming their favorite video games, some have gotten into TikTok and some are shooting socks into garbage cans (shoutout to Trae Young). But the fun doesn’t stop there.

A video recently went viral of Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine trying to score on his dog, Grizzly, in what appears to be his backyard court. It’s an amazing piece of social content in this time of slow basketball news.

Since we don’t have real, current NBA basketball to analyze, let’s dive into Grizzly’s defense against his owner.

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The first thing we need to note is that Grizzly is severely undersized against the 6-foot-6 LaVine. There’s no way for Grizzly to block the shot, so he just has to contain the dribble and force Zach into a semi-tough shot.

Zach hits him with a nifty jab, spin, crossover and step-back jumper. Not a bad move, but Grizzly stayed in front of him the whole time. He does a nice job of sliding his feet, staying on his toes and keeping low in a defensive stance. He never falls back on his heels or gambles for a steal.

It’s a brilliant display of disciplined defending. With a guy as quick as LaVine, it would’ve been easy for Grizzly to overplay the drive and give his owner an easy jumper. But Grizzly did his homework. He’s seen the film. He knows he can’t just roll over (sorry, I couldn’t help it) and leave LaVine wide open to shoot. Grizzly has elite quickness of his own.

If Grizzly was taller, the final contest on Zach’s shot would’ve been solid, but unfortunately, he could only get up into his legs. Zach’s vision was unbothered on the shot, which ultimately led to Grizzly’s downfall.

LaVine said it perfectly in the video: “Great defense. Better offense!”

Good offense beats good defense every time.

The defending was solid, but I’m most impressed by Grizzly’s attitude. He played lockdown defense but got bested by one of basketball’s best scorers, and what did he do? He didn’t hang his head. He didn’t pout. He didn’t chase a squirrel. He immediately went to get the rebound and was ready for round two.

I’m not sure what the NBA rules are about signing dogs to contracts Air Bud style, but Grizzly has definitely improved his stock heading into free agency this summer.

Grade: A