Minnesota Timberwolves rookie point guard Zach LaVine made himself known to the NBA world for his dunking ability, both during his pre-draft workouts and especially with his dominant performance in February’s dunk contest at All-Star Weekend. Yet LaVine has professional goals beyond being known as an elite aerial artist — he also wants to be a successful player in real basketball games. Style points will not suffice.
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LaVine remains a work in progress, but he achieved a meaningful milestone in Monday’s game at the Utah Jazz. Starting in place of the hobbled Ricky Rubio for the fourth time in five contests, LaVine put up 27 points, one off the career high he set back in late November against the Los Angeles Lakers. But his key impact came over the final 20 seconds of regulation. With the Jazz up 94-90 following two Elijah Millsap free throws with 25 seconds on the clock, LaVine went down the court and launched a three to get the Wolves within one.
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Trey Burke nailed two free throws at the other end to push the margin back to three points, but LaVine hit another pull-up three with 12 seconds remaining to tie it up at 96-96. Take a look at both shots here:
Burke (4-of-22 from the field and 2-of-13 from deep on the night) badly missed a goofy, fallaway three at the buzzer to finish off a horrible possession, and the Wolves were the better team in overtime. LaVine split a pair of free throws to give the Jazz a chance to win, but Burke pulled up from 32 feet with two seconds on the clock and missed the rim to help Minnesota finish off a 106-104 victory.
LaVine’s night was not perfect by any means, which is clear enough by his 7-of-19 shooting from the field and seven turnovers against just four assists. Nevertheless, those two big threes and 5-of-6 shooting from beyond the arc proved his ability to step up in key moments, especially considering that he is not known for his jumper. At this point in his career, the 20-year-old LaVine needs to show improvement and some consistency, not absolute perfection. Even with his mistakes, it was hard to watch him in this game without seeing a guy who can contribute.
LaVine has now scored at least 20 points in three of his last five games, a period over which he also shot 57.9 percent from beyond the arc. Along with the continued strong play of Andrew Wiggins (22 points on 10-of-19 FG on Monday), LaVine is showing why many observers are high on the Wolves even though they just won their West-worst 16th game of the season. There is quality on the roster, even if it takes some patience to see it.
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Eric Freeman is a writer for Ball Don’t Lie on Yahoo Sports. Have a tip? Email him at [email protected] or follow him on Twitter!
