Chicago Bulls: Zach LaVine willing to play through the pain

The first game that the Chicago Bulls star shooting guard played through with his thumb injury was on the night of Oct. 28. In a tough one-point loss in a comeback that fell just short for the Bulls against the New York Knicks at home at the United Center on Oct. 28, LaVine didn’t quite look fully comfortable throughout the entire game.

LaVine did turn it on late, but that was a little too late for the Bulls to officially pull off the comeback. They did rally from down 104-91 in the late minutes of the fourth quarter, but only got 12 points of the 13 needed to at least force it to overtime. Star shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan had a shot to win the game for the Bulls on a potential game-winning two-pointer.

But DeMar wound up air-balling that shot to let the Knicks escape with a win.

Nonetheless, it still looks like LaVine is going to try to fight through this laceration in the thumb of his non-shooting hand. While it is good that LaVine has the injury to the thumb of his non-shooting hand, it still looks like it’s knocking off his rhythm at least a little bit.

Zach LaVine will “deal with” the thumb injury for the Chicago Bulls moving forward

He’s been open about the fact that he does feel the pain and it looks like it is causing him some level of discomfort. But a report from K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago on Oct. 30 details the fact that this injury could take a good amount of time to heal and that LaVine is just going to “deal with it” in the meantime.

All of a sudden, the Bulls are having some serious and impactful injuries surfacing that is likely helping to slow the otherwise solid start to the regular season slate under second-year head coach Billy Donovan. The Bulls also got the news heading into the weekend that second-year forward Patrick Williams will miss the rest of the regular season in all likelihood as he’s dealing with a left wrist injury that will require surgery.

LaVine and the Bulls are now sporting a record of 4-1 following the one-point loss to the Knicks on Oct. 28. Next up for the Bulls is a meeting with the Utah Jazz at home at the United Center on the night of Oct. 30.