Chicago Bulls: Could Zach LaVine’s historical night be a turning point?Ryan Heckmanon January 7, 2023 at 7:11 pm

Don’t look now, but the Chicago Bulls are 7-3 in their last 10 games and now own the 9th seed in the Eastern Conference. Chicago has been playing great basketball as of late, and Friday night was yet another example.

While the Bulls weren’t able to beat Joel Embiid for the first time ever, they did beat the Philadelphia 76ers without Embiid, by a score of 126-112.

In this contest, the Bulls were able to get a standout performance from guard Zach LaVine, who had been mostly inconsistent this year before coming on and scoring over 40 points in two of his last five games.

One of those games came in this one against the Sixers, where LaVine scored a game-high 41. LaVine did most of his damage from beyond the arc, where he made a little history Friday night.

Chicago Bulls guard Zach LaVine joined Steph Curry in NBA history Friday night, potentially sparking a turning point.

LaVine joined Stephen Curry as the only player ever to make 11 or more three-pointers on 80 percent shooting from long distance.

Again, in his last five games, LaVine has topped the 40-point mark twice. In this current 10-game stretch where the Bulls have won seven, LaVine is stepping up in a big way. He’s averaging 26.0 points while shooting 50 percent from three-point range.

LaVine is also averaging 4.8 rebounds and 4.0 assists in this 10-game stretch, making it his best stretch of games he’s played all season.

The Bulls seemed dormant for much of the start of this season, but have woken up as of late. Two of the three losses they’ve suffered in this current 10-game run have been to the Cleveland Cavaliers in relatively close contests.

Otherwise, Chicago has beaten five teams ahead of them in the standings: Philadelphia, Brooklyn, New York, Milwaukee and Miami. And if you ask LaVine, he’ll tell you he thinks the Bulls can be one of the best teams in the league.

Are the Bulls making enough noise to quiet the trade rumors as the deadline creeps up? For a little while, there was a lot of speculation around LaVine, himself, along with Nikola Vucevic who is in the last year of his contract.

With Chicago playing competitive ball lately, though, it could give the front office reason to continue riding this thing out. If Lonzo Ball can come back at some point this season, maybe the Bulls make some noise behind a revitalized LaVine and company.

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