The Chicago Bulls enter Monday's matchup with the Boston Celtics having won three in a row, giving them some much-needed life after reports of tension between star players and the head coach seemingly left the team dead in the water before Christmas. Chicago is 19-21 following a trio of impressive victories over the Brooklyn Nets, Philadelphia 76ers and Utah Jazz, the closest its been to .500 since late November.
Just because the Bulls are back on track, though, hardly means that pre-existing friction has thawed completely. Though reportedly “very workable,” the relationship between Zach LaVine and Billy Donovan is still “somewhat strained” as a result of the star shooting guard being benched late in a November 18th loss to the Orlando Magic, according to Joe Cowley of the Chicago Sun-Times.
“According to a source, while the LaVine-Billy Donovan player-coach relationship is still very workable it remains somewhat strained in the wake of a Nov. 18, late-game benching in which Donovan chose to ride out the final minutes against Orlando with LaVine out of the game.”
LaVine, battling knee soreness, is coming off two of his best games of the season. He dropped 41 points on the Sixers and 36 points on the Jazz, catching fire from deep en route to a combined 17 three-pointers—his play especially encouraging because it came on both sides of a back-to-back.
“I feel great. Legs feel healthy,” LaVine said after the Jazz game. “Felt springy at the beginning of the game. So, yeah it's good to feel like me again.”
What feeling like himself means for LaVine's rapport with Donovan remains to be seen. There were recent rumblings that Chicago's locker room had lost faith in Donovan, but that his recent contract extension would likely prevent the team from making a change on the sideline.
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