Chicago Sports Exchange: Zach LaVine Making Final Push Towards First All-Star Game
Whether he’s given that stamp of approval or not, LaVine is an all-star. And both the Bulls and their appeal are better for it.
What the rest of the country has just begun to catch onto, (most) Chicago Bulls fans have already known:
Zach LaVine is damn good.
It shouldn’t take his latest box score—a 38-point volcanic eruption of 15-for-20 shooting over the Sacramento Kings Saturday—to convince assistant coaches to cast a vote for him today to play in Atlanta next month.
But whether he’s given that stamp of approval or not, LaVine is an all-star. And both the Bulls and their appeal are better for it.
Meanwhile, on the ice, the Blackhawks are hoping to be no worse for wear after they were taken to task the last time they laced up their skates.
BUY - Bulls Reel Off Multiple Wins, Stand Up to Sixers
Congratulations, Chicago Bulls. You just had your best week ever. Of 2021 at least.
Hell, if it hadn’t been for the inevitability of sure-shot MVP candidate Joel Embiid and bitterly cold three-point shooting marks, the Bulls (13-16) just might’ve strung together their first four-game win streak in three years.
Instead they finished their latest seven-day stretch with three wins—including their fourth against a team (Indiana) currently slotted for a playoff berth—and a respectable performance against Embiid’s Philadelphia 76ers in their first (and only?) national television exposure of the season on Friday.
For a franchise that hasn’t made a postseason appearance in the past five years and is still rebuilding its rep as a desirable destination for free agents, even moral victories count for something.
Especially as Zach LaVine, whose scoring average has increased to 32 points per game in February from 23.4 in December, makes his own recruiting pitch as he rests his case to be an Eastern Conference All-Star.
It’s true, this season is about appraisal.
But the brain trust of Arturas Karnisovas and Marc Eversley aren’t the only ones holding the microscope.
BUY - Hawks Getting Rest After Building Winning Record
Now’s a fine time for a layoff.
When the puck drops for their duel with Columbus Tuesday, the Blackhawks (9-6-4) will have had three days to stew over the unpleasant result of their last contest in which they forked over a pair of third-period goals, an empty netter and their three-game winning streak Carolina.
The Hawks’ longest break between games this season is a circumstance of Tampa Bay needing to catch-up to the rest of the NHL. So instead of Carolina hosting the rubber match with the Hawks, the Hurricanes welcomed to Raleigh Saturday the Lightning, who had fallen behind most every other team in games played because of the Coronavirus pandemic and winter storm Uri.
But don’t get it twisted, there were plenty of positive developments to buoy the Hawks’ spirits from the week that was, too.
If securing their fourth-straight win in as many tries against their reeling rivals from Detroit on Wednesday wasn’t enough, Philipp Kurashev’s and Patrick Kane’s eye-catching goals should do the trick.
None of Kane’s next three shots on goal need to come in the spinning fashion as the one he slung under the right arm of the Hurricanes’ James Reiner. They need only to find the back of the net for him to become the fourth Hawk—Steve Larmer (406), Stan Mikita (541) and Bobby Hull (604) are the others—to amass 400 career goals.
But given his flair for dramatics, there’s reason to believe one, if not all three, of his next goals will be as spectacular as his impending feat itself.
Drew Stevens is a Senior Writer for WARR Media, he lives and works in Chicago