23 HRS AGO - Photo by Maria Lysaker/NBAE via Getty Images it’s very important to LaVine and the Bulls, but does it matter otherwise? A real life hack of mine when it comes to NBA media consumption is to gloss over any and all awards conversation. It’s a real time-saver. Like, who even won MVP 3 years ago, and what interest is there in determining who the next one will be in February? So I don’t particularly care much if Zach LaVine is named to the All-Star reserves list tonight (news should break around 5:57 PM via Shams tweet), but it would be a relative injustice if he’s not selected. Because we all know he’s already an All-Star...in our hearts! We did a case study on LaVine making the East roster ten days ago and he’s only strengthened that case since then. During a time when some dummy thought the team would have another injury-riddled tankathon they instead have been winning with LaVine contributing all over the court and leading close victories. Zach LaVine last 9 games:33.6 Collapse

3 DAYS AGO - Mike Dinovo-USA TODAY Sports a relatively easy night at the office for the improved (?!) Bulls The Bulls led early and it rarely got too close for comfort, holding off the Sacramento Kings late for a 122-114 victory. It was a pretty wild game of two shorthanded below-average teams, I don’t think I’ve ever watched more players fly sprawling out over the baseline under the basket. But the Bulls looked a class above (more close to strictly average, really) and that is a nice level to see at this point in the season with some key guys still out. Per usual it was led by Zach LaVine. The Kings, who own the worst defense in the league, truly had no prayer of even slowing down LaVine. They didn’t have any solid wing defenders to try and their interior help defenders are slow as well. Thus LaVine, to use a Stacey Kingism uttered 14 times a night, made it look so easy. 38 points on only 20 shot attempts, and only 6 attempts from three. LaVine was making a living getting into the lane Collapse

4 DAYS AGO - Bill Streicher-USA TODAY Sports dominant performance from the big man Zach LaVine and the Bulls finally got some national TV shine against the Sixers on Friday night. While they battled hard all game despite a poor shooting performance, Joel Embiid was just way too much all night long in a 112-105 defeat. Embiid crushed the Bulls from the opening tip and wound up going for a career-high 50 points on 17-of-26 shooting overall and 15-of-17 from the charity stripe. The big man added 17 rebounds, five assists, four blocks and two steals. He was a plus-22 in a game that stayed competitive throughout, with the Bulls holding strong despite the Sixers star’s dominance. The absences of Ben Simmons and Shake Milton left the Sixers a bit thin, and the Bulls’ bench helped keep them in the game against a Sixers reserve unit that really struggled. Every time it looked like Philly was about to pull away, and that happened on multiple occasions, Chicago made a surge to get back in it. It Collapse

6 DAYS AGO - Photo by Michael Hickey/Getty Images the league rescheduled this for both teams who had cancelled games In a first for the Bulls in this weird COVID-riddled season, they are playing a game that was ‘moved up’ to take the place of a postponed one. The Bulls were originally supposed to play the Charlotte Hornets, and Pistons were supposed to play the Dallas Mavericks. As both the Hornets and Mavs are on the shelf this week, the league figured hey, why not? And a matchup between this two teams is indeed fairly inconsequential. The Bulls are somehow still in the East ‘playoff hunt’, but the Pistons 3.5 games behind them and worst in the conference. The Bulls haven’t faced Detroit in over a calendar year. Both of these franchises had front office overhauls heading into this season, though only one of them has been interesting and active. Troy Weaver on his aggressive approach to building the Pistons: "When I was growing up, I didn't stick my toe in the pool. I jumped in. I sit Collapse

2/16/2021 - Photo by Ron Hoskins/NBAE via Getty Images it wasn’t pretty, but the Bulls pulled it off in Wendell Carter Jr.’s return to the lineup The Bulls entered Monday’s game with a 10-game losing streak in Indiana dating back to 2016. While it wasn’t pretty, the streak mercifully came to an end thanks to a 120-112 overtime victory over the Pacers in Wendell Carter Jr.’s return to the lineup. Despite taking an 11-point lead early in the fourth quarter, it felt like that losing streak was actually going to continue when the Pacers came storming back to take the lead heading into crunch time. But after a quiet first three quarters, Zach LaVine went into attack mode, taking over down the stretch with 12 of his game-high 30 points coming in the fourth quarter. LaVine’s biggest shot came with a high degree of difficulty down two points in the final minute of regulation: Zach LaVine's got the CLUTCH gene.@NBCSChicago | #NBAAllStar pic.twitter.com/iZw2BrPGey— Chicago Bulls Collapse

2/12/2021 - Kirby Lee-USA TODAY Sports Bulls looking for first signature win of season Chicago Bulls (10-14) vs. Los Angeles Clippers (18-8) The answer to the million dollar question isn’t getting any clearer. Is the tandem of Zach LaVine and Coby White the Chicago Bulls backcourt of the future? The two young guards combined for 76 points on 27-for-45 from the field (60 percent), hitting 17 of the Bulls franchise-record 25 three pointers. Their special performances powered the Bulls to a 129-116 victory over the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday evening. But the two guys have a net rating of nearly -10 in the team-high 588 minutes they’ve shared the floor together this season. Part of the reason is that White is a shooting guard being forced to play the point guard position. Meaning the Bulls may have two ball-dominant shooting guards who don’t complement each other particularly well. If you’re ready to give up on the ‘Coby White point guard experiment’ already that means another year Collapse

2/12/2021 - Kamil Krzaczynski-USA TODAY Sports but the field is crowded The NBA released the second voting returns for the 2021 All-Star Game (that’s actually going to happen) on Thursday, with Bulls guard Zach LaVine holding firm in fifth among Eastern Conference guards behind Bradley Beal, Kyrie Irving, James Harden and Jaylen Brown. Here are the full voting results thus far: The second returns for #NBAAllStar Voting presented by AT&T!VOTE NOW on https://t.co/LJPDRHEugp, the NBA App or on Twitter using #NBAAllStar #FirstNameLastName. ️: https://t.co/CXy9KEYXBe pic.twitter.com/Gv5wGSY55I— NBA (@NBA) February 11, 2021 LaVine was never going to be voted in as a starter, but it’s nice to see him getting some credit from the fans for his strong season. I’m honestly kind of surprised LaVine is above Trae Young in the voting, though that could just be a function of the large fan base in Chicago and the concerted push the franchise and its owned media arms are making to get him Collapse

2/10/2021 - Photo by Jonathan Daniel/Getty Images Begging for a win Chicago Bulls (9-14) vs. New Orleans Pelicans (11-12) A sobering reminder from YFBB’s latest: After purge in the front office and on the coaching staff. Optimism about the future for the first time in years. Luck in the lottery. And the end result? The Bulls are in exactly the same spot that they have been in for the last three or four years: the bottom of the NBA. Tankathon.com, a website most Bulls fans probably have pinned to their homepage by now, reveals if the season ended tonight the Bulls would finish with the fifth-worst record in the Association. Tonight, the Bulls could get an advanced look at Lonzo Ball, who has been swirling in trade speculation lately. Ball hasn’t lived up to his draft position early on in his career. The Bulls really could use a true point guard and Ball could offer them that skillset if he ended up in Chicago... Lonzo has picked up his play recently, perhaps in response to Collapse

2/9/2021 - Photo by Jeff Haynes/NBAE via Getty Images epic loss Monday was a brutal day for your Chicago Bulls. Lauri Markkanen is out two to four weeks with his shoulder injury. Nobody knows when Otto Porter Jr. will be back from his back injury. Chandler Hutchison isn’t playing due to “personal reasons,” and it’s unclear when he’ll be available again. To cap it all off, the Bulls suffered arguably their worst loss of the season in a 105-101 defeat to the lowly Wizards, who were playing without Russell Westbrook for rest purposes. As bad as the Bulls were, they were still playing the Wizards, who also suck, and had a chance to tie or win in the final seconds. Unfortunately, Zach LaVine biffed a game-tying layup attempt to cap off a brutal fourth quarter, which ruined a 35-point night. LaVine was looking for a foul call on Alex Len, but I thought this was a good no-call: dang pic.twitter.com/zuinCCD5p5— Bulls Talk (@NBCSBulls) February 9, 2021 LaVine shot just 2-of-11 in the Collapse