NEWSLETTER
I would not be doing my job as the head of a Chicago Bulls blog if I didn’t open up these bullets with the following:
*clears throat vigorously*
THE CHICAGO BULLS ARE SO BACK AND THE REST OF THE LEAGUE SHOULD BE IN THE FETAL POSITION CRYING MASSIVE TEARS.
It's just so effortless@NBCSChicago | @ZachLaVine pic.twitter.com/iO8vjW9KMk
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) November 11, 2021
• I seriously can not think of a better sequence to illustrate how much has changed for the Chicago Bulls. Alex Caruso dives for the steal, Nikola Vucevic hands the ball to the team’s best passer, Lonzo Ball throws a 101mph fastball to Zach LaVine, and the Bulls No. 1 player finishes an in-game 360 slam to put the Bulls up 14 against the 7-3 Mavericks. Oh, and then LaVine proceeds to bark at the same ref who refused to call a foul on the previous two possession and gets T’d up. Should I be condoning the technical? Probably not, but when you finish a play that made 3/4 of the United Center faint from an awesomeness overload, I think you should be allowed to cuss out almost anyone (the only person I might take off the table is Elmo … he’s done too much good in this world).
• But as fun as it is to see LaVine do what he did, Lonzo Ball deserves the biggest round of applause. His overhand laser that probably felt like a racecar zooming over Dwight Powell’s head was thrown beautifully at LaVine’s hip. Ball truly could not have set up the spectacular dunk any better.
The dunk was great, but I still can’t stop thinking about that pass from Lonzo.
This dude is special.
pic.twitter.com/nWfmltmegz— Bleacher Nation Bulls (@BN_Bulls) November 11, 2021
• While this might be Ball’s best feed of the season, it’s only one of many to his ridiculously athletic teammate. The combination of him and LaVine in transition and fastbreak situations is becoming borderline unstoppable. The moment the basketball ends up back in the Bulls’ possession, LaVine is practically halfway down the court. His awareness and willingness to relentlessly get ahead of the defense makes for the perfect pairing with a player whose natural instinct is to immediately look up the floor and push the pace.
“We have to run for him [Lonzo Ball]. A lot of times people talk about running, but you’re really running for others,” head coach Billy Donovan said after the game. “He’s such a great advanced passer that when we got out in run, in particular Zach, especially in some situations where he’s on the wing defensively opposite of the ball and we can get a clean rebound and he takes off. I mean, it’s easy points.”
• So far this season LaVine has taken 16 feeds from Ball, the most he’s received from any teammate. The majority of these assists have come in transition, and I put a bunch of those together for your viewing pleasure below. LaVine currently ranks 6th in the league in fastbreak points per game.
The transition and fastbreak combo of Lonzo Ball and Zach LaVine is becoming truly lethal.
LaVine’s speed and athleticism mixed with Ball’s natural instinct to keep his eyes up the floor creates such easy buckets.
Easy to see why Lonzo was on the Bulls radar for so long. pic.twitter.com/2CxYECjei9
— Elias Schuster (@Schuster_Elias) November 11, 2021
• I’m sorry, but I can’t stop the Lonzo Ball love there. Not only did the guy fall just one short of tying his career-high with seven 3-pointers last night, but he also played marvelous defense on the MVP-caliber Luka Doncic. Ball helped hold Doncic to his second-fewest points in the first half this season (8pts) and his third-fewest total points this season (21pts). The matchup data NBA Stats supplies isn’t always perfect, but it does give us an idea of how effective someone was in one-on-one situations. According to the database, Ball held Doncic to just 5 points on a 1-5 showing from the field in the 4:16 they were matched up against one another.
“Just get into him as much as I can,” Ball said when asked about guarding Doncic after the game. “Luka is a great player, obviously, people like that have the time and space to go and kill you all night. So for me it’s just trying to make his job as tough as I can.”
• I’m pretty sure watching Alex Caruso is the closest humans will get to seeing an atom with the naked eye. Each game the former-Laker (lol … y’all dropped the ball) continues to amaze Bulls fans with his contributions on the defensive end of the floor. Last night, he tied his career-high with 6 steals, vaulting him into the league lead despite playing only 27.5 minutes per game. Caruso also added a season-high 16 points, which included three makes from downtown. He is now shooting 40.7 percent from behind the arc, which is a skill set the Bulls might want to use a little more of as they try to increase the amount of 3’s they take per game (currently rank last in 3PAs per game).
https://twitter.com/TheHoopCentral/status/1458628694163922958?s=20
• Let’s hope last night’s Vucevic is here to stay. The big man looked way more like his former self against the Dallas frontcourt, scoring 18 points with 10 rebounds on an 8-14 performance from the field. He not only looked much more confident shooting the ball, but it felt like he did a better job calling for the ball while in his spots on the court.
“We’re doing a better job on offense finding him. We watched a bunch of film and tried to dissect how we can get him better shots, better rhythm, and I think we’ve done a great job of that.”
• SAY IT LOUDER FOR THE PEOPLE IN THE BACK!
The lone players that Arturas Karnisovas inherited on this Chicago team is Zach LaVine and Coby White.
Pretty remarkable what he and his front office have accomplished so far.
Chicago is tied for first with Washington (another great story).
— Bobby Marks (@BobbyMarks42) November 11, 2021
• Thibs being Thibs.
Thibs didn't play any starters in the final 14:01, some of them not in the final 18:50 tonight. Legendary.
— Tim Reynolds (@ByTimReynolds) November 11, 2021
• You love to hear it!
If Chicago is in the market for a new coach and/or GM, one pundit thinks we’ll see candidates line up to be part of the Justin Fields show: https://t.co/HODEDhzG37 pic.twitter.com/eVbaBqHN1G
— Bleacher Nation Bears (@BN_Bears) November 11, 2021
• More like: How should the Blackhawks handle … everything?
How Should The Blackhawks Handle Lukas Reichel?https://t.co/Oh9ZakwOyF
— Bleacher Nation Blackhawks (@BN_Blackhawks) November 10, 2021
