On the night of Oct. 28, second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Chicago Bulls will take on former Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau and the New York Knicks. This looks to be the first major challenge in terms of the Bulls’ home schedule for the regular season. Getting a win over the Knicks on this night would go a long way to establishing a solid level of confidence and momentum ahead of a really difficult early-season schedule in the coming weeks.
One of the overarching storylines surrounding the Bulls meeting with the Knicks at the United Center on Oct. 28 is the injury status of star shooting guard Zach LaVine. The one-time All-Star selection is dealing with a thumb injury on his non-shooting hand heading into this matchup against the Knicks.
While it originally looked like LaVine would be active against the Knicks, that status is starting to come into doubt. LaVine is now questionable for the Bulls on Oct. 28. And he reportedly stated this week that “I don’t want to put myself in any danger” and that he doesn’t “have all the information on (the injury) yet”.
Status of Zach LaVine for the Chicago Bulls is now more in question
LaVine on potentially missing game(s): "I don't want to put myself in any danger. I don't have all the information on it yet. We'll see how I feel tomorrow and going from there. You know me, I try to play through everything. If I'm able to, I will. If not we'll see how it goes." https://t.co/Mt0shMiM2Y
— Rob Schaefer (@rob_schaef) October 27, 2021
It is important to note that LaVine also mentioned that if this injury “comes down to pain tolerance, he wants to play through it”. We still don’t know yet what it will be like for LaVine to play through an injury that could be nagging him like this.
If this injury really disrupts the ability of LaVine to play good on-ball defense, and to mainly handle the ball and shoot well, then it might be best to rest him for this critical stretch of difficult games coming up.
For the time being, the Bulls do have some other sources of offense to turn to. If LaVine does miss some time or is at least limited against the Knicks, the Bulls can turn to the likes of star shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan, center Nikola Vucevic, and point guard Lonzo Ball to shoulder the scoring load more.
LaVine and the Bulls are set to carry a spotless record of 4-0 into this meeting with the 3-1 Knicks on “Joakim Noah Night” on Oct. 28 at home at the United Center. Tip-off time between the Bulls and Knicks at the UC on Oct. 28 is set for 7 p.m. CT.