Zach LaVine very unhappy to have finished on the bench

Zach LaVine had little taste of the treatment inflicted on him during the last four minutes of the match narrowly lost to Orlando (107-108). Clearly next to his pumps, at 1/14 shooting, the rear / winger simply finished his match on the bench, finding helpless against his team’s backhand.

After the meeting, he went out of his way to express his disapproval.

“I have to do a better job at the start of the game to put my shots, but you have to play with a guy like me until the end”, did he declare despite his 4 points on the clock. ” It’s my job. Do I like this decision? No. Do I have to live with it? Yes. I have to be ready to put my shoes back on and play the next game”.

Billy Donovan looking for electroshock

Difficult to say if Zach LaVine could have been “clutch” at the end after having watered so much, even if it is also what is expected of a “franchise player”.

Billy Donovan was confirmed in his choice by his experimentation between the end of the third quarter and the start of the fourth, when he rested Zach LaVine for more than 9 minutes, and Chicago reduced its deficit from 16 to 4 dots. It also took little for him to succeed in the end since the locals led by four points with 20 seconds remaining, until Jalen Suggs reversed the fate of the meeting.

“I feel like my job, my responsibility in those times, is to try to make the best decisions for the team”defended the coach. “And I think it was the best decision at that time. For me, I see nothing other than a match with a singular course. I know he wanted to be on the pitch. There probably aren’t many games in his career where he hasn’t been on the pitch in those moments, but that group was playing well and that gave us a chance.”

On the recovery against… Boston

Zach LaVine indeed finished with the worst +/- of his team (-19), a sign that the Bulls could not find a solution when he was on the field. Beyond personal cases, Chicago is in four consecutive losses and it is therefore normal that Billy Donovan is looking for levers to reverse the trend.

“No one is going to feel sorry for us. We have another game coming up and we have to win. It’s still early in the season, but we don’t want to fall into this habit of losing, losing, losing and continuing to say that we’ll take the next one. It sucks. But I think we’ll get through this. We’re pretty strong mentally.”

Except that the next match will take place against Boston, leader of the Eastern Conference and which remains on nine successes…