Let’s look back at Zach LaVine’s incredible comeback with the Chicago Bulls against the Toronto Raptors
The second play-in match on April 13 witnessed an excellent comeback by the Chicago Bulls, eliminating the Toronto Raptors on away field.
Playing at home with the enthusiastic support of the Canadian audience, the Toronto Raptors seemed to have an easy victory when they held an advantage of nearly 20 points.
But this is just the story of the first half of the play-in match between the Raptors and the Chicago Bulls. In the third and fourth quarters, the away team, with the brilliance of the duo DeMar DeRozan and especially Zach LaVine, completed an unbelievable comeback.
Right on the Raptors’ field, the Chicago Bulls won 109-105 to continue raising hopes of entering the Playoffs, putting an end to their opponents in the 2022-23 season.
Ranked 9th on the Eastern rankings, Toronto Raptors have home field advantage and play extremely well. Fred VanVleet’s buzzer-beater from midfield put the Canadian team up 58-47 as the second half ended.
The gap widened to the furthest mark of 9 points right at the beginning of the third quarter (66-47), creating an advantage and comfortable space for the home team. But that still wasn’t enough for the Raptors to keep the game.
The Chicago Bulls suddenly rose up, opened a 9-0 scoring streak at the beginning of the fourth quarter, equalized the score and then rose not long after thanks to Patrick Beverley’s 3-pointer.
When there was only 1 minute left in the half, Toronto narrowed the gap between the two teams to 1 point. Zach LaVine responded in the next attack to restore the 3-point gap (107-104, 17.2 seconds remaining).
The Raptors still have a chance to take the match into overtime when Pascal Siakam has 3 free throws. Unfortunately, this All-Star striker only succeeded in the first FT, missed both subsequent free kicks and handed the victory to his opponent.
Not only the bitter FT shots at the end of the fourth quarter, but throughout the entire match, the Toronto Raptors were very bad at free throw shooting. The entire team only had a 50% success rate, reaching 18-36 FT. In an important match like this, this is an unacceptable statistic.
“We lost ourselves. The whole team missed too many free throws during the match. The team had a chance to win, had a lead and had home field advantage. Everything was wasted because we lost ourselves,” Pascal Siakam admitted at the post-match press conference.
Zach LaVine led the Chicago Bulls with 39 points (12-22 FG, 13-15 FT) along with 6 rebounds and 3 assists. DeMar DeRozan contributed 23 points, 7 rebounds, 3 assists and 2 blocks.
For the Raptors, Pascal Siakam scored the most points with 32 points, 9 rebounds and 6 assists. Fred VanVleet nearly reached a triple-double with 26 points, 12 rebounds, 8 assists.
This match puts an end to the 2022-23 season of the Toronto Raptors. This is the second time in 3 years that the “dinosaurs” were unable to participate in the Playoffs round.
Meanwhile, the Chicago Bulls still have 1 match to decide their ticket to play in the postseason. Their opponent in the next play-in match is the 7th ranked Miami Heat.