Zach LaVine made 11 3-pointers Friday night in the Chicago Bulls’ victory over the Philadelphia 76ers for the first time since March 2019.
That’s the second most 3-pointers in a game in franchise history. number one? A win on the road against the Charlotte Hornets on his 13th at LaVine on November 23, 2019.
“Once I started doing it, that basket looked like the ocean,” Lavigne told NBC Sports Chicago’s Adam Amin and Stacey King on air.
In fact, LaVine sank the first eight 3-pointers before missing a heatcheck firing right in front of the Bulls’ bench. He finished 11-for-13 from a 3-point range as the Bulls posted a season-high 20 past the arc.
Lavigne joins Golden State Warriors star Stephen Curry as the only player in NBA history to make at least 11 3-pointers on an 80-plus percent shooting percentage. LaVine’s three-pointer his percentage jumped from 37.8% to his 40.1% after a blistering performance.
Earlier this season, Lavigne passed Ben Gordon for second on the franchise’s all-time 3-pointer success list. LaVine currently has his 836 career 3-point shooting as a Bull, trailing Kirk Heinrich’s 1,049.
LaVine has appeared in 67 and 58 games over the past two seasons, making 185 and 200 3-pointers, respectively. So Hinrich is in sight.
The night was a reminder of all of Lavigne’s power in catch-and-shoot situations and ability to light a fire as one of the league’s most effortless scorers. But it also featured a strong defensive sequence and his six assists as the Bulls tallied his 33, putting him one short of his season-high as a team.
Nikola Vucevic finished with a 10-assist triple-double and took advantage of a mismatch with the Joel Embiid-less 76ers to set the tone on offense early on. In fact, even after his near-record night, Lavigne took credit for him elsewhere.
“I think the MVP of the game was Vooch,” he told Amin and King.
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