Chicago Bulls: Zach LaVine still has plenty to prove

A tough start to the regular season slate for second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls actually amounted to a win in the end on the road on Oct. 20 over a young Detroit Pistons squad. The Bulls went back and forth with the Pistons for much of this game, with more than a dozen lead changes along the way. But a solid effort from the likes of star shooting guard Zach LaVine and newly signed point guard Alex Caruso down the stretch helped to close this game out for the Bulls.

As a team that was expected to thrive offensively, but mostly struggle on defense, the regular season opener was a bit surprising. The Bulls wound up topping the Pistons by the final score of 94-88.

A slow start to the first half, where the Bulls only scored 40 points, picked up in the last 24. The Bulls outscored the Pistons 31-25 in the third quarter and 23-19 in the fourth. Plenty of clutch performances helped the Bulls close this key divisional road game out too.

LaVine was the focal point in this game for the Bulls. He essentially scored one-third of all of the points for his team in this game. LaVine registered a game-high 34 points, seven rebounds, four assists, one steal, one block, and two turnovers. And he shot 11-of-17 from the field, just one-of-five from beyond the arc, and was perfect on a whopping 11 attempts from the free-throw line.

It’s hard to look past the fact that LaVine was the driving force to the Bulls getting this season-opening win over the Pistons. He willed this team to get the win when some of the other key players were struggling to get going offensively.

But there were some solid defensive efforts that surfaced from the likes of Caruso and surprisingly star shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan. Caruso came up with four steals and two blocks as he was a stud closing out this game for the Bulls. DeRozan also came up with an impressive three steals to help out defensively.

Zach LaVine carrying the highest level of motivation with the Chicago Bulls this season

Yet, the takeaway from this game should be the fact that LaVine has a bigger chip on his shoulder than ever before. He wants to win and get it done in any way possible. This is the same type of attitude he carried into Training Camp and the preseason. So, it’s not too shocking to see him play like this to start off the regular season.

LaVine also summed this up well postgame for the Bulls, saying “a win is a win”.

This type of performance from LaVine and the fact that the Bulls still came away with the win, despite some of the struggles getting up out of the gates, shows that he still thinks he has plenty to prove this season. And that is largely true because he does have a lot to prove to show that he can be a winner and a potential superstar in this league.

LaVine and the Bulls now boast a record of 1-0 following this six-point win to open up the regular season slate over the divisional foe Pistons. Next up for the Bulls is a meeting with the New Orleans Pelicans at the United Center in the home opener on Oct. 22.