There were some stagnant moments.
That was on full display very early on when the Bulls looked more G-League than NBA the first five minutes of Saturday’s game against a completely undermanned Memphis team missing eight players.
No one said life without two-time All-Star Zach LaVine was always easy.
Until it is.
The Bulls eventually righted the ship and took full control of the game, blowing out the visiting team 125-96.
Just the latest reminder that life without LaVine goes on.
It was during Thursday’s win in Toronto that LaVine put his right ankle to the floor while driving to the hoop, tried to come back later and play, but was then pulled by coach Billy Donovan when it was obvious he wasn’t right.
He underwent a scan on Friday, and now the Bulls are looking at another stint without LaVine with him likely missing at least the next week.
The ray of sunshine in all of this?
Going back to the right foot injury that cost him 17 games, and now an ankle that will keep him in street clothes, the Bulls were 11-7.
The bad news?
For an organization that was doing all it could to try and muster up a trade market for LaVine’s services but only hearing silence, this latest injury isn’t exactly going to help raise his stock. If anything, not only is his max contract an obstacle, but now it’s also his availability.
Either way, the mentality remained that the show must go on.
“I think naturally it’s a next-guy-up mentality with this team,” forward Patrick Williams said. “We’ve shown that really over the years, but especially this year. We’ve done a good job of knowing what works, and I think that’s the sign of a good team.
“The good teams know how to still win games when they’re missing key pieces. For us it’s about playing with pace, getting downhill, knowing shots may not fall as easily as they do when (LaVine’s) playing, but defensively getting stops and getting out in transition, I think we’re still pretty good.”
Memphis found that out in the second half when the Bulls turned a nail-biter into a laugher, outscoring the Grizzlies 75-56 in the final two quarters and improving to 21-23 on the year.
And like they have on many occasions when LaVine was sidelined, it was an equal opportunity showcase with seven players scoring in double digits led by Ayo Dosunmu’s 20 points, as well as DeMar DeRozan chipping in with 18 to go along with his eight assists.
“It’s definitely a challenge (for the defense) because you really can’t key into one guy,” Dosunmu said of the win and how the scoring load was shared. “It just makes it so we can get downhill more, make plays for each other and create open shots. Then it leads to us getting offensive rebounds and things of that nature.”
That’s why Donovan was again asked if the product was better without LaVine.
“Clearly the first 15 games of the year when we were whole, we did not play up to our standard, our capabilities,” Donovan said. “We won games when Vooch (Nikola Vucevic) was out, we lost games when Vooch was out. We won games when Zach’s been out, we’ve lost games when Zach was out. We’ve played in a way that I think is good basketball.
“I do think anytime you lose a high-quality player like Zach, it hurts your team at any point and time. His skillset and the things he can do as far as driving it and his ability to assist and get other guys involved, helps our team. I like when our team is whole.”