Zach LaVine went wild Friday night, taking advantage of a Joel Embiid-less Philadelphia 76ers squad, dropping 41 points, including 11 three-pointers, in a 126-112 victory.
LaVine posted the second-highest point total of his career on Friday night, bested only by a 49-point outing against the Charlotte Hornets in 2019, which saw the 27-year-old knock down 13 three-pointers.
In Friday’s win, LaVine shot 14-of-19 from the field and 11-of-13 from three. Per ESPN Stats and Info, it was LaVine’s fourth career game of 40 points on 70 percent shooting, tying him with Scottie Pippen for second in Bulls’ history. LaVine trails only the great Michael Jordan (12) for the top spot.
According to StatsMuse, Lavine joins Damian Lillard and CJ McCollum as the only players with 11-plus threes in a game this season.
Friday night’s 40-plus point performance is LaVine’s second in the last five games for the Bulls and his third overall in 2022-2023.
Lavine scored 43 points on December 30 against the Detroit Pistons, shooting 75 percent (15-of-20) from the field and 55 percent from three-point range (5-of-9) in a 132-118 Bulls’ victory.
In the first week of December, LaVine registered his first 40-point game of the season, shooting 57 percent (16-of-28) from the field and three 33 percent (3-of-9) to finish with 41 points in a nine-point loss to the Sacramento Kings, 110-101.
Despite entering Friday averaging 22.4 points, 4.3 rebounds, and 4.3 assists per game, LaVine found himself outside the top ten in All-Star voting among guards. Perhaps the news found LaVine before his stellar night against the shell-shocked 76ers.
LaVine and the Bulls have won two in a row and seven of its last ten games. Friday’s win over the Sixers improved the Bulls to 18-21. They are 3.5 games behind the third-place Indiana Pacers (22-18) and seven games back of the Milwaukee Bucks (25-14), and Cleveland Cavaliers (25-14) for the Central Division lead.
