Bulls better weathering adversity; LaVine stays on roll originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
LOS ANGELES — Zach LaVine is on an offensive tear. And the Chicago Bulls are better handling adversity.
There are many factors impacting the Bulls’ recent surge, including Patrick Beverley’s arrival, strong bench play headed by Coby White and Patrick Williams and the consistency of DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic.
But Sunday’s 118-108 victory over the Lakers featured another example of LaVine’s seeming ease to dominate offensively and the Bulls turning back multiple runs by the Lakers.
“The thing where I think we’ve gotten better and I’m hoping it can continue is we had not ever responded at all to teams making a run,” coach Billy Donovan said. “Those were games earlier in the year where we could just not stop the avalanche. And I’m seeing better fight back physically and competitively.”
That featured Alex Caruso taking charges from LeBron James and Anthony Davis and Andre Drummond and Derrick Jones Jr. ably filling in for the ejected Vucevic for Sunday’s second half.
“That was disappointing because there’s a lot of people affected by that. Vooch is a really, really important piece. He’s a great teammate and a great guy. He’s got to be better in that moment. But it happened. And it’s over and done with and we need different guys to step up and contribute,” Donovan said. “I walked in there and told Andre (Drummond), ‘You’re starting the third.’ And Bev is right into it, trying to gas him up and get him going. And Alex is saying something to him. I give our guys a lot of credit. That’s what you have to do.
“Things happen in the game—bad call, an ejection, missed free throw, missed shot. There’s so many things that can cause you to get down. You’ve got to be able to say, ‘What’s the next thing in front of me that I have to do my job on?’ And I feel like when that moment happened, we came more together and tried to help each other more.”
LaVine continued his torrid play, finishing with 32 points on 13-for-19 shooting.
“Sometimes when you’re a player of Zach’s caliber, there’s a ‘going into the game’ where you’re trying to get an understanding of how you’re being guarded,” Donovan said. “But when he starts the game being aggressive and getting downhill or making quick decisions, it gets him more attempts and opens it up for everyone else.”
LaVine is now averaging 30.2 points on 52.3 percent shooting, including 45.6 percent from 3-point range, over 12 games in March. He’s also connected at 87.7 percent from the line this month.
“Feel like I’m supposed to be doing this,” LaVine said. “Put the work in. Trust your work. Understand what you put into the game and the game rewards you.”
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