With guard Zach LaVine sidelined, Bulls turn up the Heat on Miami

MIAMI – It had all the makings of a disaster.

A throwback game to last season that the Bulls organization was doing its best to try and forget.

First came the somewhat surprising announcement during the Wednesday shootaround that Zach LaVine would miss the regular-season opener against the Heat later that night, and then came the realization that this was the same Miami team that dominated the Bulls in all three meetings last season.

Good thing for the Bulls that DeMar DeRozan comes from the school of – as he put it – “the tougher the situation, the more you need to thrive.”

Thrive he did, as DeRozan’s 37 points, which included 28 coming in the second half, helped the LaVine-less Bulls shock the Heat at FTX Arena 116-108.

While DeRozan embraced the win, he was more proud of how his team did it. Last year against the league’s best, they were often out-hustled and allowed the opposition to grimy up the game. Wednesday, the tables were turned.

“We had a helluva learning lesson last year,” DeRozan said. “We had that blueprint and that’s what we’ve been stressing. The IQ, the grit, getting dirty, attention to detail late in games. We did a great job with that [against Miami].”

And while the post-game locker room was filled with good feelings with the win, there was a bigger picture being masked. Specifically, LaVine news that seemingly could alter the trajectory of the entire season in the front office’s eyes.

Fresh off a max contract and a knee surgery to clean up his left knee issues over the summer, LaVine was talking about how anxious he was to return to the player he was at the start of last year. A conversation he had with the media just days ago.

So when he was ruled out of the opener because of the decision of “managing” the left knee, there had to be a clear explanation.

LaVine didn’t really provide one.

“It’s the way it is,” LaVine said. “Just for going forward, I want to make sure I’m 100% at the end of the season, too. So I think the best thing is just managing it.”

When asked if there was a setback or flare up with the knee recently that somehow went into this “managing”, LaVine denied that.

“I never said I felt a flare up,” LaVine said. “This is the determined course of action.

“I think we looked at the schedule and figured out what would be right for me … It’s a long season, and there’s going to be some sunny days and there’s going to be some rainy days. I think if you just go forward with that mentality I’ll be alright.”

What added to the confusion was a teammate did say that he thought LaVine came out of a Friday practice with some soreness in the knee.

LaVine, however, stuck to his guns with this being a “determined course of action” based on managing the knee.

Billy Donovan finally cleared the air before the game, admitting that LaVine did experience discomfort in the knee after the team did have three days of intense five-on-five practices.

“I don’t think this is a surprise to me at all,” Donovan said. “I think we knew going into this it was going to be something to manage and Zach was going to have to deal with it.”

What Donovan or LaVine couldn’t answer was if managing the knee would last all season? Not a great look for an organization that swore the knee was fine when LaVine inked the five-year, $215 million max deal in July.

“I wish I had a crystal ball to look into the future, I really do,” LaVine said. “It would be great if I could figure that out. I’ll look up some lottery-ticket numbers if I knew that.”

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