LaVine’s decisiveness makes the ‘whole team better’

The Chicago Bulls haven’t had the season they had hoped when the 2022-23 campaign started.

And Zach LaVine hasn’t had the season he had envisioned coming into his ninth season in the league.

But, with the playoffs just a month away, and the Bulls sitting as the No. 10 seed in the East, Chicago is starting to play some better ball.

On Saturday, Chicago won their second game in a row, outlasting the Houston Rockets, 119-111, led by LaVine’s 36-point performance.

“I think since the All-Star break we’ve been much better offensively. And I’ve said this many times: when Zach’s aggressive and he’s playing downhill and he’s taking catch-and-shoots and he’s taking shots where guys back off the 3, it’s great,” Billy Donovan said following Saturday’s victory. “Even if he has a bad night shooting, at the end of the year he’s probably going to shoot close to 50 percent from the field and from 40 percent from 3.

Donovan’s not wrong — since the All-Star break, the Bulls have played much better as a unit on offense, especially LaVine, who averaging 31.4 points on 58.1 percent shooting from the field and 50 percent from 3-point range.

“So when he’s decisive, it only opens things up for everyone,” Donovan said. “He’s unselfish enough where if he’s getting downhill, he’ll spray the ball out. If you look at Zach’s shot profile, there really aren’t too many shots you say you don’t want him to take.”

When asked about hot scoring streak, LaVine kept it cool. “Just being aggressive.”

LaVine struggled at times during the first-half of the season to find a rhythm shooting from outside and dealing with his knee injury that lingered a bit, but he’s back too his All-Star form and Donovan knows it.

“When Zach is decisive, he makes our whole team better,” Donovan said.

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