CHICAGO (670 The Score) – The question was met with a shake of the head and a light chuckle, perhaps at the creativity of the callback or perhaps at its audacity.
Is this why they play guys like you in the fourth quarter?
"Don't do that," Bulls star Zach LaVine replied. "You said it, you said what I said (before)."
LaVine and the Bulls were in a good mood in the aftermath of a much-needed 115-111 win against the Bradley Beal-less Wizards on Wednesday at the United Center. LaVine scored 13 of his 25 points in the fourth quarter to help the Bulls finally take control in a back-and-forth, often sloppy game. Included in that was a streak in which LaVine hit 3-pointers on three consecutive possessions, a surge that came after he had shot 4-of-13 in the first three quarters.
With that hot hand, LaVine lent significant credence to his headline-grabbing quote after Bulls coach Billy Donovan had benched him in crunch time of a loss to the Magic on Nov. 18 – "You play a guy like me down the stretch," a frustrated LaVine said that night.
Needless to say, LaVine isn't going to be benched in crunch time again anytime soon. The struggling Bulls – who won Wednesday but didn't inspire much hope with their sloppy 19-turnover effort – need their stars to come up big in big moments if they're to climb out of their rut. LaVine had plenty of help against the Wizards, as forward DeMar DeRozan scored 15 of his team-high 27 points in the fourth quarter and center Nikola Vucevic had 25 points and 11 rebounds, including a go-ahead bucket in the paint with 2:48 left after LaVine re-fed him with a pass in the post in a mismatch.
"It just shows the trust he puts in his teammates and in me in that specific play," Vucevic said. "It's also something we talked about a lot when I am trying to post and he's the next guy.
"Even if he had shot it, it would've been a great shot for us, especially when he's hot like that. But it just shows the kind of guy he is. It was a good play for us."
Donovan has often expressed his belief that the Bulls are at their best when they have five or six players score in double figures in a balanced effort, but he also understands stars shining can go a long way to fixing a team's troubles. Getting 77 points from the DeRozan-LaVine-Vucevic trio in efficient fashion will be a recipe for success.
"I like the way those guys are playing," Donovan said. "They're unselfish. They'll play the right way. They'll read the game. I thought we had good balance coming down the stretch."
With the win, the Bulls improved to 10-14 and snapped a three-game losing streak that contributed further to internal frustration and externally led to frenzied conversation across the NBA landscape about their bleak outlook.
"We understand we've been fighting, just trying to figure it out," DeRozan said. "Then come back home on our home floor, feel that energy that we needed to pull out the game. That's exactly what we needed. We came out, played our butts off. Like I said, it was sloppy here and there, but we stuck with it."
Cody Westerlund is a sports editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.
Listen live to 670 The Score via:
Audacy App | Online Stream | Smart Speaker
