Zach LaVine is playing good basketball this season.
The UCLA product is averaging 23.8 points, 4.6 rebounds, 4.4 assists and 1.5 steals per contest.
And in Sunday’s 118-108 win over the Dallas Mavericks, LaVine scored 39 points and added six rebounds and five assists in the win.
What made LaVine’s performance special is that he scored 21 points in the first quarter and ending the first half with 29 points.
The last Chicago Bull to score 29 or more points in a half was Michael Jordan. LaVine was one point shy from matching Jordan’s 30-point half which his Airness did in a game against the Portland Trail Blazers in 1997. “If you’re mentioned with him, it means you’re doing something right,” Zach LaVine told NBA Insider Brandon ‘Scoop B’ Robinson following the Bulls’ win on Sunday.
“One of the main reasons I started watching basketball as a kid, just like so many others. I think I knew the stats and the way he played and how he got it done.”
LaVine also shared that during his time away from basketball during the NBA Bubble in Orlando, Florida he watched Jordan’s every move in ESPN’s The Last Dance. “I think the thing I didn’t realize is how much stress and how much pressure he had on him and how he handled it,” he told Scoop B.
“It was cool to see him with the camera on him and see how he handled it and if he was in the hotel room with the cigar or if he was going golfing to decompress. And then he got his mind ready and he turned into an animal on the court. That was what I took away from it, all these outside distractions and how he handled it and he was still the best player on the planet at the end of the day every night.”
Currently LaVine and the Bulls are on a West Coast road trip.
Last night Chicago beat Damian Lillard, CJ McCollum and the Portland Trail Blazers 111-108. LaVine totaled 18 points, four rebounds and nine assists in the win. Coby White posted 21 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, Otto Porter Jr. had 19 points and 13 rebounds of his own.
The Bulls resume their West coast tonight against the Buddy Hield, De’Aaron Fox, Marvin Bagley III, Hassan Whiteside, Harrison Barnes and Jabari Parker-led Sacramento Kings who are currently 3-4 and are in seventh place in the NBA’s Western Conference standings. Currently the Bulls are 4-4 and in eleventh place in the NBA’s Eastern Conference standings. The Bulls are +230 underdogs on the road.
Following tonight’s game against the Kings, the Bulls will face LeBron James, Anthony Davis and the Los Angeles Lakers on Friday and Kawhi Leonard, Paul George and the Los Angeles Clippers on Sunday before heading back home and facing the Boston Celtics at home at the United Center next Tuesday.
