BOSTON – There was a time it was just Zach LaVine.
At least that’s how it felt on many nights when the old Bulls regime was still running in rebuild mud, and it was sink or swim with the No. 8.
No Nikola Vucevic patrolling the middle, no DeMar DeRozan playing hero.
For about 18 minutes on Monday, it felt like old times, as DeRozan was forced out of the game with Boston because of a right quadriceps injury, leaving LaVine to finally get back the reins and try and deliver what would have been the signature win of the season against the Celtics in the Garden.
LaVine scored 15 of his team-high 27 points in that final stanza, and while it was valiant, it still wasn’t enough to overcome the home team, as the Bulls dropped the regular-season finale against Boston 107-99.
“You want to have your boy with you, he got hurt,” LaVine said of his night. “We were down, we’ve all been in that position before.
“You just gotta lay it out there. You’re not going to win by feeling sorry for yourself or we’re down a man. Just go lay it out there and see what happens. Couple little bounces here and there, it could have been our game.”
He wasn’t wrong about that.
It did come down to bounces.
Down as many as 16, LaVine helped lead the charge back, and with 1:17 left a Nikola Vucevic layup cut the deficit to just two. The Bulls (19-22) seemed to continue riding that momentum wave on a Jaylen Brown miss, setting the stage for LaVine to throw another dagger in the direction of the Eastern Conference-leading Celtics.
He got a solid look baseline, but his 16-footer went in and out with 50 seconds left. Al Horford didn’t have that same misfortune. The veteran hit what proved to be the shot of the night, as his three-point attempt bounced up in the air much like LaVine’s did, but caught the right bounce at the right time.
Just like that, the comeback and LaVine’s heroics went silent.
“He led the way,” DeRozan said of LaVine. “I felt like he was going to close that thing out, give ourselves the opportunity to walk away with this thing. I wasn’t surprised. I’ve seen it in him. Al hit the big shot, shake his hand, but as far as Zach, I knew he was going to turn it up, try and will us to get a win.”
The good news for the Bulls was even with the loss, they still ended up finishing the season series with Boston 2-2. Considering the Celtics (29-12) only have 12 losses and two of them came courtesy of the Bulls? Not bad at all.
The bad news was DeRozan’s quad strain. The veteran hasn’t missed a game all season long, and while the quad had been bothering him for “like eight games,” his hope was his attendance record would stay perfect on the season.
“I thought I tripped, but I guess apparently I tripped over nothing but the parquet floor,” DeRozan said of how the injury occurred, and yes, he was using sarcasm.
DeRozan actually felt like he was tripped by a Celtics player, but the officials missed it.
“I feel fine other than it being real irritated, nothing too crazy,” he continued. “It’s just in that spot that moving you just need that to simmer down. We’ll see how I feel [Tuesday].”
As for LaVine, he also finished the game with six assists and seven rebounds, despite a shaky 4-for-13 from three.
“[LaVine] knew a lot was going to fall on his shoulders, and I give him credit for taking on that responsibility,” coach Billy Donovan said of his two-time All-Star. “Zach just knew, ‘I need to do this.’ ”