SpursFanSinceNovember2017
Superstar
Billy Donovan wants Zach LaVine to shoot 10 to 15 three-pointers a game
LaVine shot 17-of-25 from 3 in the past two games.
www.si.com
“It’s good to feel like me again,” Zach LaVine said after Saturday's 126-118 win over the Utah Jazz.
It's been a while since the Chicago Bulls shooting guard felt like himself. Even at the start of the team's current three-game winning streak, the 2x All-Star had a subpar outing against the Brooklyn Nets—he finished with 13 points on 4-of-11 from the field.
However, a hot shooting stretch over the last two games finally got the 27-year-old where he wanted to be ever since he returned from a knee injury.
LaVine had 41 points in Friday's win over the 76ers. He followed it up with a 36-point outing against the Jazz yesterday.
The 27-year-old shot 17-of-25 from 3 in the last two games. He now averages 7.6 3-point attempts on the season and presents Chicago's best bet to potentially increase their league-low number of long-range attempts (28.7).
The Bulls' head coach Billy Donovan knows it. That's why he encouraged LaVine to attempt 10-15 threes a game.
“I would love that,” Donovan said. “The more 3s he gets up because he’s so great and so elite, the more it opens up another area he’s elite at, and that’s driving the ball to the basket.”
"For us to generate more 3s, he can be a big part of that," the Bulls' head coach continued. "And then he's got to find a balance between shooting those threes and obviously getting downhill and either getting to the basket or passing and creating offense for others."
LaVine smiled at Donovan's suggestion.
“I’ll try if I can,” he said about upping his three-point attempts to double digits.
Donovan's comments came after LaVine became the first player in franchise history to score 35 points or more with at least six 3-pointers in two straight games. That says a lot about LaVine's resurgence after early-season load management kept him out of these backs-to-backs.
“It’s what happens when you come off surgery, man,” Zach said. “Everybody expects you to come back and be yourself or better. But without a lot of training and rehab, you’re going to have to go through those ups and downs. I take it on the chin. I knew I was going to get back to what I was supposed to do.”
