It didn’t take long for history to repeat itself. One year earlier, DeMar DeRozan had achieved an incredible feat by achieving two “game winner” at the buzzer in the space of 24 hours to enter the year 2022. Saturday evening, the same situation almost happened again when Chicago found itself trailing 103-102 by Cleveland with possession to follow for the Bulls.
As Caris LeVert slipped after the game, “everyone knew” that the last ball was going to go to DeMar DeRozan. The Bulls winger finally took a very complicated shot, which bounced off the circle.
As he came out of his best performance of the season with 43 points against Detroit, his teammate Zach LaVine expressed no regrets over that last missed possession.
“No, it’s not difficult. I mean, when you know what he’s done in his career. He put a lot of those shots. I put some too, but we live with the result. I’m full behind him every time he takes a shot like that because I’ve seen him take more than he misses.”, did he declare.
A shot that should have come back to him
Zach LaVine also revealed that the last shot could actually have been his, based on the system drawn up by Billy Donovan on the last time-out, no doubt aware that DeMar DeRozan was going to be targeted. On the action, we indeed see Nikola Vucevic put a screen at the head of the racket to give an opportunity to Zach LaVine.
“It was either a post-up for DeRozan or a pindown for me, but we weren’t able to put it together”he slipped. “Maybe we could have called a time-out, but then you’re just looking to get yourself a good shot. We weren’t able to get us the exact shot we wanted. But I’ve seen DeRozan put others like that before.”
There is no doubt that the opportunity to conclude a match in the last moments will present itself again and that it will be his turn to take responsibility. A moment that he waits impatiently.
“You know very well that I am the most confident guy that can exist”he launched. “I’ve had plenty of opportunities. I also missed a lay-up at the end which could have helped us to come back. I have already been commissioned for this. We will have other situations of this kind in the future. And we’ll see what happens.”
| Zach LaVine | Percentage | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Season | Team | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | party | Int | bp | CT | Points |
| 2014-15 | MIN | 77 | 25 | 42.2 | 34.1 | 84.2 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 2.8 | 3.6 | 2.1 | 0.7 | 2.5 | 0.1 | 10.1 |
| 2015-16 | MIN | 82 | 28 | 45.2 | 38.9 | 79.3 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 2.8 | 3.1 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 0.2 | 14.0 |
| 2016-17 | MIN | 47 | 37 | 45.9 | 38.7 | 83.6 | 0.4 | 3.0 | 3.4 | 3.0 | 2.2 | 0.9 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 18.9 |
| 2017-18 | CHI | 24 | 27 | 38.3 | 34.1 | 81.3 | 0.4 | 3.5 | 3.9 | 3.0 | 2.3 | 1.0 | 1.8 | 0.2 | 16.7 |
| 2018-19 | CHI | 63 | 35 | 46.7 | 37.4 | 83.2 | 0.6 | 4.0 | 4.7 | 4.5 | 2.2 | 1.0 | 3.4 | 0.4 | 23.7 |
| 2019-20 | CHI | 60 | 35 | 45.0 | 38.0 | 80.2 | 0.7 | 4.1 | 4.8 | 4.2 | 2.2 | 1.5 | 3.4 | 0.5 | 25.5 |
| 2020-21 | CHI | 58 | 35 | 50.7 | 41.9 | 84.9 | 0.6 | 4.4 | 5.0 | 4.9 | 2.4 | 0.8 | 3.5 | 0.5 | 27.4 |
| 2021-22 | CHI | 67 | 35 | 47.6 | 38.9 | 85.3 | 0.3 | 4.3 | 4.6 | 4.5 | 1.8 | 0.6 | 2.6 | 0.3 | 24.4 |
| 2022-23 | CHI | 32 | 35 | 46.0 | 38.1 | 82.7 | 0.5 | 3.7 | 4.3 | 4.2 | 2.3 | 1.1 | 2.4 | 0.0 | 22.6 |
| Total | 510 | 32 | 46.1 | 38.5 | 83.0 | 0.5 | 3.5 | 4.0 | 3.9 | 2.2 | 0.9 | 2.6 | 0.3 | 20.0 | |
