Zach Lavine and the Chicago Bulls are facing their first taste of adversity this season after suffering a humiliating defeat to the Brooklyn Nets.
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All year long, the Bulls have looked like genuine title contenders, en-route to their 27-12 record, first place in the Eastern Conference. However, in the biggest matchup of their season, the Bulls completely collapsed.
Facing the Nets big three at home, Chicago had a chance to show everyone that their season wasn’t a fluke, that they could take on the best of the best. However, it wasn’t meant to be as they lost convincingly, 138-112. Now, they face another marquee matchup, taking on the Golden State Warriors at home once again.
Let’s bounce back. Bulls-Warriors tonight!
📺: @ESPN & @NBCSChicago
📻: @670TheScore pic.twitter.com/AkIKI0U2Oi— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 14, 2022
Zach Lavine has a stern message for his doubters
After the Bulls faltered against Brooklyn, NBA fans were all over Chicago, calling them frauds and saying they were undeserving of the #1 seed, and that even if they got a high seed in the regular season, they’d fail in the playoffs.
However, Bulls star Zach Lavine doesn’t want to hear any of it. He wants to ignore the outside the noise and put his haters to bed with his play.
Zach LaVine on critics: “I don’t listen to bullshit. I try to make people eat their own words.”
Zach said it’s been incredible working with Billy Donovan.
LaVine said the Bulls are “extremely lucky having a guy like Javonte Green on the team.”
(Via Gimme The Hot Sauce Podcast)
— Daniel Greenberg (@ChiSportUpdates) January 14, 2022
On the year, Lavine is having another All Star caliber year. The Bulls shooting guard is averaging 25.6 points per game on a 49.1%, 41.2%, and 87.2% shooting split.
In the Eastern Conference, Lavine is currently third in All Star voting among all guards, behing is teammate DeMar DeRozan and Hawks star Trae Young.
Golden State’s Stephen Curry, Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant, Lakers‘ LeBron James and Bulls‘ DeMar DeRozan continue to lead in the NBA’s second All-Star Game fan voting returns: pic.twitter.com/Ml9CPPdvLi
— Shams Charania (@ShamsCharania) January 13, 2022
Lavine is also the only player this year to be averaging 40% three point shooting while scoring more than 25 points per game. Surrounded with the perfect team around him, Lavine’s finally shown that he’s more than just an ’empty stats’ guy as without his scoring prowess, the Bulls would not be as good as they are. All they need now is that signature win against a title contender.
Golden State offers the perfect opportunity. Klay Thompson has just come back, and the Warriors are trying to feed off the energy of his return. However, they also just lost to the Milwaukee Bucks by a whopping 118-99 yesterday night. The Bulls will try to capitalize on the Warriors playing a back-to-back and a slumping Steph Curry as they look to avenge their disappointment against the Nets.