Bulls Notes: Buzelis, Ball, NBA Cup, Dosunmu

There weren’t many bright spots for the Bulls in Saturday’s loss to Memphis, but rookie forward Matas Buzelis provided some hope for the future, writes Darnell Mayberry of The Athletic. Buzelis scored 12 of his career-high 14 points during an electrifying stretch in the second quarter as he displayed his many offensive talents.

As Mayberry describes, Buzelis viciously attacked the rim on drives to the basket, displayed confidence on catch-and-shoot three-point shots and flexed toward the crowd after finishing a fast break with a tomahawk dunk. After sinking his first three-pointer, Buzelis turned to the Grizzlies’ bench and stared down Ja Morant, who is sidelined with an injury.

“Ja said, ‘It’s off’ or something like that; ‘Hell no,’” Buzelis explained after the game. “And I just looked at him. I didn’t really say anything.”

The Bulls were fortunate that Buzelis fell to them with the 11th pick in the draft after he had been projected to go much higher. The team has been bringing him along slowly, but they needed him for 29 minutes on Saturday with Patrick Williams sidelined by foot inflammation and Julian Phillips missing the game due to illness. Buzelis’ performance may be an indication that he’s ready for a larger role for the rest of the season.

“The biggest thing that I respect about him,” coach Billy Donovan said, “is that I think he understands the importance of the little things. And I think that’s an area of focus that he’s been trying to really focus on.”

There’s more from Chicago:

• Lonzo Ball is making progress with his sprained right wrist and may be cleared for contact this week, according to Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times. Donovan sounded optimistic about Ball’s prognosis when he spoke to reporters before Saturday’s game. ‘‘Today was probably the best day he had in terms of shooting the basketball,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘Whatever it was, a week or 10 days ago, he was having some discomfort shooting. And today he actually felt pretty good doing that, so there’s been significant progress over the last 10 days. But until he can get into some contact, using his hands, passing, catching, those kinds of things, we can at least keep moving forward.’’
• Donovan is the latest coach to express uneasiness about running up the score in NBA Cup games, Cowley adds in a separate story. Because point differential is an important tie-breaker in the tournament, Donovan kept his starters on the court with a double-digit lead late in Friday’s victory over Atlanta. “I don’t know if there’s a different way to do it,” he said. “When you’ve only got these four games, there’s got to be some sort of separation if these teams have the same record. But I don’t love that part of it, personally. It is what it is, those are the rules, and we’ve just got to play with them.”
• Bonus money in the NBA Cup is a strong motivator for players, Ayo Dosunmu tells Paul Sullivan of The Chicago Tribune. “That’s $500,000,” he said of the winners’ share. “As a competitor you’ve always got that in the back of your mind. … Everybody in the top four gets money. You’re getting money to do it, getting paid on top of getting paid. That’s fun, and I think it brings more competition during the season, because the season is so long.”