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Billy Donovan praises DeMar DeRozan's team-first approach against the Toronto Raptors
DeMar DeRozan didn’t focus on scoring in Monday's rematch against the Toronto Raptors. Instead, he tried to act as a decoy to help dissect the Raptors’ defense. After the game, head coach Billy Donovan showered DeRozan with praise for it.
“Tonight was all about his greatness as a player. Because it was a total give himself up for the benefit of the team,” Donovan said of DeRozan. “He read the floor, the way he was being guarded, and he made the right basketball plays.”
Toronto planned to force the ball out of DeRozan’s hands
Raptors head coach Nick Nurse raved about DeRozan before the game and didn’t hide the team’s plan to stop him.
“He’s like a megastar, man,” Nurse said. “What we had to pull out (Sunday) night on him to try to stop him; I mean, we stopped him and he still had 20 [laughs]. … We threw an all-out assault at him (Sunday) night in every way we could think of — and he still got 20.”
The double teams and hard traps to force the ball out of DeRozan’s hands began immediately. As a result, he only had one field goal attempt in the first 10 minutes of the game. The Bulls forward, however, did record three assists in that span before scoring his first points in the second quarter.
DeRozan finished the game with nine points on 2-of-6 shooting -- the lowest number of FGAs since he joined the Bulls. However, Chicago still came up with a 111-97 victory after a blowout loss on Sunday in Toronto.
Balanced team effort
DeRozan had seven assists and six rebounds in the game, and his mere presence freed up many opportunities for his teammates. The key to this game for the Chicago Bulls was that other plays stepped up.
Zach LaVine (nine points), Goran Dragic (eight), and Javonte Green (seven) combined for 24 points in the first quarter, setting the tone for the rest of the game. LaVine finished with a game-high 30 points, Nikola Vucevic had 15 points along with 13 rebounds, and Ayo Dosunmu added 13.
