LaVine officially joins DeRozan on NBA All-Star team
Zach LaVine is officially an All-Star for the second straight year. He was announced as a reserve before the Bulls tipped off against Toronto on Thursday.
LaVine started the night as the seventh-leading scorer in the East at 24.9 points per game. Bulls coach Billy Donovan said Thursday he thinks LaVine is well-respected by his peers.
"I think it goes back to the summer when they were selecting the USA team (for the Tokyo Olympics)," Donovan said, "Pop (coach Gregg Popovich) called me, Sean Ford from USA (Basketball) called me and a lot of players that were already on that team had gone to Pop and Shawn Ford and people with USA really endorsing Zach as a player. I think that speaks to him. He's really evolved and he's gotten better."
The other Eastern Conference reserves are Miami's Jimmy Butler, Cleveland's Darius Garland, Boston's Jayson Tatum, Milwaukee's Khris Middleton, Brooklyn's James Harden and Rockford native Fred VanVleet from Toronto.
The Western Conference reserves are Devin Booker and Chris Paul from West-leader Phoenix, Donovan Mitchell and Rudy Gobert from Utah, Dallas' Luka Doncic, Minnesota's Karl-Anthony Towns and Golden State's Draymond Green. Green said on the TNT broadcast he will not be playing in the All-Star Game due to injury
Next week, LeBron James and Kevin Durant will pick the teams for the Feb. 20 contest in Cleveland.
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