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The Chicago Bulls took down the Denver Nuggets at home on Monday night, and they now have a road trip coming up. The Bulls will return to action on Wednesday as they will be taking on the defending champion Boston Celtics, and then they will finish up the road trip on Friday night against the Toronto Raptors. Zach LaVine will not play on Wednesday, and he will likely miss Friday's game as well as he and his wife are expecting their third child.
“Zach LaVine will be out for Wednesday’s game in Boston due to personal reasons, per Billy Donovan,” Julia Poe said in a post. “He is likely to miss this entire road trip. LaVine and his wife Hunter recently announced that they are expecting their third child.”
With Zach LaVine out, it will be interesting to see what the Bulls do with their lineup. Patrick Williams was just moved to a reserve role on Monday, and he noted that he is more comfortable coming off the bench as that is the role that he is used to. We'll see if that remains the same on Wednesday.
“I would say yeah, but I wouldn't say that I'm uncomfortable starting,” Williams said, according to a post from Julia Poe. “I just think it's – the second unit needs different things than the first unit, I've always kind of tried to be a player that can fill any gap. I'm not trying to say I'm one thing, I'm trying to be a basketball player. Whatever the game needs, I try to be able to do that. Second unit needs a little bit more scoring, a little bit more offensive identity. I was able to provide that tonight.”
Someone will have to pick up the slack with Zach LaVine out, and that will be no easy task. LaVine once again was extremely impressive on Monday night in the Bulls' win over the Nuggets as he dropped 21 points and went 5-10 from deep. However, a lot of other players stepped up and had big games as well, and that's a good sign heading into this road trip.
“They were doing a great job early in the game not letting me get into the paint, forcing me to pass; so just trying to read the game,” LaVine said after the game, according to an article from NBA.com. “I knew I was going to have to take a couple of them, but just figuring out when. Zo [Lonzo Ball] got hot. DT [Dalen Terry] was playing great. Matas [Buzelis] played great. Pat [Patrick Williams] played the way he is supposed to; that’s what really helped. Ayo [Dosunmu] had a hell of a game. It was the way we were supposed to be playing.”
The Bulls trailed for a good portion of Monday night's game before finally breaking through in the third quarter to take the lead. When the Bulls went up, they didn't look back as they ended up getting the win, 129-121.
With the victory, the Bulls improved to 20-27 on the year and they are still in 10th place in the Eastern Conference. Their next game will tip off at 7:30 ET against the Celtics at TD Garden in Boston on Wednesday night. The game will be airing on local networks.
