Speaking about elevens… how about fifty!?!? Yeah, not a bad Bulls game last night. It wasn’t looking pretty for a while, but the Bulls hung in there, started playing better defense, started showing that A+ effort, and started making big shots to come back and beat the Clippers in OT. It was needed.
But yeah, #11 for the Bulls… not a bad player. He becomes the 6th different Bulls player to score 50 points in one game. DD, Chet Walker, Jamal Crawford, and Zach Lavine have all done it once. Jimmy Butler did it twice; I was there for one of those games… awesome. The other guy, yeah, MJ… he’s done it 30 times. Some of these stats… I know stats aren’t everything, but man… impressive. I remember watching the Bulls back then; MJ was a lock for 30 pretty much every night, as well as, 1-2 moves that make you go DAMN!!! Well, DeMar had himself a game in this one. He hasn’t been able to carry us like he had been; this is one contributing factor to the down streak of basketball the Bulls have been in. For a minute there, DD carried us, plain and simple. That streak of 30, 35 points in how many ever games in a row… yeah, he carried us. Defenses have been wising up to him, plus DD can’t ALWAYS do it; he’s not MJ you know… haha. He did his best impersonation on this evening. Like I said, we needed it.
Patrick Williams was another key contributor on this evening. He’s been easing his way back into things; that’s OK. He’s got about 5 more games to get totally back into it. He made some big shots, including an impressive drive and deflected dunk over one of the Clippers’ big men. He will be one of the keys to the Bulls postseason success; he seems to be getting more confident as we go along.
Someone who seems to have lost his confidence is Zach Lavine. I probably could write an entire blog about this… about how DD has come in, and taken the #1 spot with this team… maybe not what Zach expected… maybe he wasn’t cool with it, maybe he is now, maybe the pressure being taken off of him from being the man had helped him this year… maybe it’s hurting him now… maybe he’s thinking about his injury. Something isn’t right with Zach. Zach needs to be right for the Bulls to make noise in the playoffs. Yes, DD can do his thing, but Zach needs to do his thing as well. Not sure that the two perfectly complement each other; they have had games when they’ve both done really well. We’ll need 11 AND 8 to be at the top of their game in the second season.
Can’t believe DD missed that free throw at the end of regulation; thankfully it didn’t matter, and actually allowed him to reach that 50 level. It was fun to see the guys celebrate in the locker room after this win. It’s been a tough stretch of ball for the boys; this is exactly what they needed. I expect this to carry over for the rest of the regular season, and help springboard us in our postseason series. Can one game mean that much? We’re hoping. We’ll get a good indication of that on Saturday night at the UC vs the Heat. We’ll be in the house!!! Go Bulls!!!
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