Zach LaVine Checked Himself Out and Headed to the Locker Room in the 1st Quarter of Tonight’s Game (UPDATE: Cautious Optimism, MRI Awaits)

With 8:28 to go in the first quarter, Zach LaVine committed an intentional foul to check himself out of the game and walked straight to the locker room.

The Chicago Bulls All-Star looked comfortable as he headed through the tunnel, needing no help from trainers or showing any noticeable limp. With that being the case, it’s hard to even determine where an injury could have occurred. The ESPN broadcast did replay a rebound that came just before LaVine checked himself out, and he does seem to hop a bit awkwardly off his right foot, but it’s truly hard to speculate.

The main concern right now is this appeared to be a non-contact situation. Those can always be scary, so let’s hope we get a positive update soon on his status. We’ll keep you posted.

https://twitter.com/_Talkin_NBA/status/1482154613021282307?s=20

UPDATE

The Chicago Bulls have announced that Zach LaVine will not return to tonight’s game due to a left knee injury. Again, there was no clear indication on the court of exactly when or how he may have suffered the injury. Also, LaVine did walk off the court completely under his own power.

All we can do now is wait for an update on the severity, but this certainly leaves all of us with a very uneasy feeling.

UPDATE (7:44)

We have reason to be cautiously optimistic.

ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski has reported that LaVine will receive an MRI on his LEFT KNEE (this is not a foot injury, as initially speculated) tomorrow. Fortunately, there seems to be “initial confidence” by the Bulls training staff that LaVine’s injury isn’t serious. Of course, while that’s reassuring to hear, we’ll have to wait for the MRI results before we can take a real sigh of relief.

Remember, the Bulls play tomorrow night in Boston before heading to Memphis on Monday. The expectation for now should probably be that LaVine is not with the team for tomorrow’s game.

UPDATE (8:10)

Another round of positive news heads our way. NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson says LaVine’s MRI could be moved tonight.

Even more encouraging, LaVine left the United Center walking fine (just like he did when originally leaving the game). Johnson also informed us that LaVine has already been playing with some minor swelling, so perhaps tonight he wanted to ensure things didn’t get worse, thus choosing to check himself out of the game when he felt some discomfort.

UPDATE (Saturday): The results of the MRI showed no structural damage, so the news so far is good.

written by

Elias Schuster is the Lead Chicago Bulls writer at Bleacher Nation. He started with BN full-time in 2019 immediately after graduating from the University of Illinois Urbana Champaign with a degree in Journalism (yes, he started with the Jim Boylen Era). Since joining, Elias has been the driving force behind Bulls and NBA content for both the site and social accounts. You can follow him on Twitter/X @Schuster_Elias.

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