CHICAGO (670 The Score) – Amid his organization’s rather rudderless season and as he sits on the trade market with little movement surrounding his name lately, Bulls star guard Zach LaVine is playing some of the best basketball of his NBA career.
LaVine scored 33 points to lead the Bulls to a 138-105 win against the lowly Wizards on Friday evening at the United Center. It was LaVine’s fifth straight game with 30 or more points, marking the longest such streak of his career. LaVine, Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo and Thunder star Shai Gilgeous-Alexander are the only players in the NBA to have a five-game 30-point scoring streak this season.
More significantly, LaVine continues to produce at an efficient rate. He shot 14-of-21 against the Wizards, including 3-of-7 from 3-point range. He’s now averaging 23.6 points while shooting 51.8% overall and 44.4% from downtown for the season. His shooting percentage, 3-point percentage and true shooting percentage are all on pace to be career-best marks.
“When you’re in a rhythm, you always want to try to stay there,” LaVine said when asked how his recent play compares to the best stretches of his career. “I’ve felt good all season. It’s not just this stretch. I’ve felt good mentally and physically. It’s just a little different. I’ve definitely been on some hot streaks before, but on this one, I just feel pretty sharp.”
After the game, Bulls point guard Lonzo Ball called LaVine “a top-three shooting guard in the NBA currently.” Coach Billy Donovan was full of praise for LaVine as well, noting he’s playing at an All-Star level and detailing how LaVine’s game has helped uplift his teammates, including when the Bulls shot 55.8% and had a season-high 39 assists Friday.
“With the way we’re playing (fast), it’s putting him in a lot more space where he can get his speed and athleticism into the game,” Donovan said. “When he gets a head of steam going to the rim, he’s obviously an elite finisher, but then the other part of it too is if teams really try to back up and contain, he shoots the ball so well. He’s played really efficiently – not only himself personally, but I think he’s made our team efficient with the unselfishness in the passing.
“When you have an offensive night like he had, (viewers) can get caught up in just the shotmaking and the scoring, but you miss the open opportunities he creates for guys.”
The 29-year-old LaVine’s superb play has come as his future with the Bulls remains murky. He has been on the trade market since 2023, when the Bulls quietly began shopping him and then his camp later expressed to the team that he was ready for a change of scenery. No deal has come to fruition, for a couple reasons. LaVine was slowed and then sidelined by a foot injury in the 2023-’24 and also has a contract that’s viewed as onerous by the rest of the NBA under a more restrictive collective bargaining agreement. LaVine is making $43 million this season, is owed $46 million in 2025-’26 and holds a $49-million player option for 2026-’27.
With all that in mind, LaVine was asked about how he has handled criticism of his game and contract in recent years and come out on the other side in one of the best grooves of his life.
“It just comes with the territory,” LaVine said. “When people have a certain expectation of you, it comes with that. Us as basketball players, myself, we get paid a lot of money to go out here and play the game. So people can have their opinions or feel a certain way about you. It shouldn’t affect the way that you go out there and play or your mindset. I think us as players can do a better job of cancelling out stuff. Because that’s what comes with the job. People are supposed to talk about you or have opinions about you. And if you’re not at that level, they wouldn’t talk about you at all. So at a certain point, it’s a good thing that they’re, ‘Oh, Zach didn’t play well or Zach didn’t do this’ because I’m not up to their standards of where I hold myself.”
Cody Westerlund is an editor for 670TheScore.com and covers the Bulls. Follow him on Twitter @CodyWesterlund.