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.”
Is Williams Cuban? He’s hurt all the time!
Weak ahh coach, point differential is super common is basketball all over the world. If your players are injury prone get some new players or a better trainer. Soft.
For at least a small percentage of games every year, fans know they’ll see two teams trying their best for 48 minutes. Love the point differential.
Matas looks good. Still yrs away.
A real coach would have been finding a way to use Buzelis from the beginning. But old weak mind Billy kept pounding a round Williams into the same square hole that hasn’t worked for 4 years in a row. It was only when all his other flunky’s got hurt he turned to the last guy he had. Some Coach. He stinks and nobody can tell me any different.
You’re not a Bulls fan. You just have a major man crush on Buzelis for whatever reason. All the kid can do right now is dunk. Then you have the audacity to call other players on the team “flunky’s”. There’s a reason he’s not getting playing time and it’s not because Donovan can’t coach. Buzelis is overrated and nobody can tell me any different.
Buzelis seems to have more heart in playing than our last few years of picks. Julian Phillips, Dalen Terry and even Patrick Williams are busts of picks. If anyone on this team is overrated, it’s their $90+ mil new injury riddled “Lonzo 2.0” in Williams. He’s overrated and a huge bust as a #4 pick. They should’ve let him walk after last season, but now we’re wasting $90+ mil on him being in street clothes.
Blue Meanie-And you can tell that by……What exactly? The way he sits on the bench? LMAO. You’re a joke.
For real. What a stupid comment…
The Bulls are so dumb. They have a real opportunity and are too stupid to see it. If you had Giddey at the 1, LaVine and White splitting the 2( When LaVine decides to play anyway), Buzelis at the 3 and Vujevic at the 5 You have matchup nightmares all over. They don’t have a 4 so insert idiot of your choice there. They would drive people nuts. But dumbo Billy still thinks Williams is the answer. The real question is How does he keep his job?