Chicago Bulls dud from commanding win over the Blazers: Zach LaVine
This was mostly a forgettable outing for potential soon-to-be two-time All-Star shooting guard Zach LaVine to round out the weekend. The good news here was that the Bulls didn’t need LaVine to do everything for the offense as the rest of the starting unit was playing pretty well in this meeting with the Blazers.
LaVine looked solid in his last few games for the Bulls since returning from a knee injury last week. This just seemed like one of those games for him where he has to have a short memory and move on to the next one.
All in all, though, LaVine is going to have games like this where he mostly just can’t find his rhythm shooting from the field and from beyond the arc. That was evident by the fact that he finished up this game shooting just 7-of-18 from the field, 3-of-9 from beyond the arc, and 3-of-4 from the free-throw line. All of those shooting percentages fall below his season averages thus far.
That shooting performance saw LaVine register 20 points, which is his lowest tally since in a full game’s work since the Bulls’ Jan. 11 win over the Detroit Pistons.
Moreover, LaVine also gave the Bulls two rebounds, four assists, one steal, one block, and no turnovers. At least LaVine didn’t have a ton of turnovers, and he still made a pretty solid defensive impact. Thus, this game is not a complete loss for him.