While DeMar DeRozan pained the Hawks defense, Ayo Dosunmu took care of their bandleader, Trae Young. Holder in the lead since Lonzo Ball is still absent, the Chicago native shone against Atlanta (12 points, 6 rebounds, 3 assists, 3 blocks), particularly in defense against the Georgia All-Star.
Bigger and stronger but also quick in his lateral movements, which allows him not to get caught up in the screens, always one arm in the air and the other down to limit the “triple threat”, Ayo Dosunmu made Trae Young suffer (14 points, 3/17, 4 lost balls). Perhaps more than any other player this season. Quite an observation for a rookie selected in the second round.
Already opposed to “Ice Trae” earlier in December, during a double confrontation between Chicago and Atlanta, the former Illinois player had marked the spirits by the quality of his defense, with in particular 3 counters on the leader of the Hawks , cumulatively over the two meetings. Two months later, he returned the cover.
After the match, he explained that the defense against Trae Young is above all a mental and strategic exercise.
” I tried to stay focused on him, to remember their systems.” he explained. ” Because he’s an All-Star, and they’re going to turn to him late in the game. I wanted to hinder him with my arms, of course not to give him outside shots. And just try to defend without making a mistake. And I succeeded.“
Ayo Dosunmu rightly evokes the end of the match: while Atlanta was at +2 (108-107) 30 seconds from the final buzzer, with the match point in the hands of Trae Young, the rookie released a “stop decisive defensive. First by getting rid of Clint Capela’s screen with ease, thus avoiding a “switch” which would probably have been fatal to the Bulls, then by contesting the Hawks point guard’s 3-point “step-back” attempt, before completely disrupting his “lay-up” thanks to his huge arms.
A very high class defensive action.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5s2EnNsdzk
” Once he backed up, I was confident because I knew I wasn’t going to give him that shot at 3. And when he got in the key, I did everything to hinder him with my wingspan. he concluded soberly.
| Shots | Bounces | |||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Players | GM | Minimum | Shots | 3 points | LF | Off | Def | Early | pd | bp | Int | CT | party | Points |
| Demar Derozan | 56 | 35.7 | 52.1 | 35.3 | 86.4 | 0.8 | 4.4 | 5.2 | 5.1 | 2.3 | 0.9 | 0.3 | 2.2 | 28.3 |
| Zach Lavine | 48 | 34.6 | 48.0 | 39.6 | 87.1 | 0.3 | 4.6 | 4.9 | 4.4 | 2.7 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.7 | 24.5 |
| Nikola Vucevic | 53 | 33.9 | 47.2 | 31.5 | 76.7 | 2.0 | 9.7 | 11.7 | 3.6 | 1.9 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 2.5 | 18.1 |
| Coby White | 40 | 28.0 | 45.2 | 39.8 | 84.0 | 0.3 | 2.7 | 3.0 | 2.8 | 1.2 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 2.4 | 13.9 |
| Lonzo-Ball | 35 | 34.6 | 42.3 | 42.3 | 75.0 | 1.0 | 4.4 | 5.4 | 5.1 | 2.3 | 1.8 | 0.9 | 2.4 | 13.0 |
| Tristan Thompson | 1 | 13.2 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 62.5 | 2.0 | 4.0 | 6.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 11.0 |
| Alex Caruso | 28 | 27.7 | 42.9 | 34.5 | 81.4 | 0.9 | 3.0 | 3.9 | 3.9 | 1.4 | 1.9 | 0.4 | 2.4 | 8.4 |
| Ayo Dosunmu | 55 | 26.0 | 52.3 | 41.3 | 67.7 | 0.3 | 2.5 | 2.9 | 3.1 | 1.2 | 0.7 | 0.4 | 2.3 | 8.2 |
| Javonte Green | 43 | 24.3 | 53.8 | 33.3 | 82.9 | 1.6 | 2.8 | 4.4 | 1.1 | 0.6 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 2.1 | 7.6 |
| patrick williams | 5 | 24.9 | 56.5 | 50.0 | 100.0 | 0.2 | 2.0 | 2.2 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 1.8 | 6.6 |
| Derrick Jones | 35 | 17.6 | 54.3 | 38.1 | 82.4 | 1.3 | 2.1 | 3.4 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.7 | 2.3 | 6.0 |
| Troy Brown, Jr. | 49 | 18.1 | 40.2 | 33.3 | 76.0 | 0.7 | 2.8 | 3.5 | 1.1 | 0.4 | 0.6 | 0.1 | 1.1 | 4.6 |
| Matt Thomas | 35 | 12.8 | 39.7 | 38.4 | 80.0 | 0.1 | 1.3 | 1.4 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.5 | 4.3 |
| Malcolm Hill | 13 | 11.5 | 45.0 | 35.7 | 70.0 | 0.7 | 1.3 | 2.0 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.1 | 4.1 |
| Alfonzo McKinnie | 17 | 12.1 | 39.3 | 33.3 | 25.0 | 0.8 | 1.2 | 1.9 | 0.3 | 0.4 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 1.5 | 3.5 |
| Tyler Cook | 19 | 10.3 | 61.1 | 0.0 | 64.5 | 0.8 | 1.9 | 2.7 | 0.2 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.2 | 1.4 | 3.4 |
| Tony Bradley | 45 | 11.1 | 57.9 | 0.0 | 66.7 | 1.3 | 2.4 | 3.7 | 0.5 | 0.6 | 0.2 | 0.7 | 1.2 | 3.1 |
| Devon Dotson | 11 | 7.7 | 47.8 | 22.2 | 55.6 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 0.8 | 1.4 | 0.5 | 0.1 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 2.6 |
| Mac McClung | 1 | 2.5 | 100.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 |
| Marko Simonovic | 9 | 3.9 | 26.7 | 20.0 | 72.7 | 0.6 | 0.6 | 1.1 | 0.0 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.7 | 1.9 |
| Alize Johnson | 16 | 7.5 | 52.2 | 0.0 | 57.1 | 1.0 | 1.2 | 2.2 | 0.5 | 0.5 | 0.2 | 0.0 | 0.9 | 1.8 |
| Jordan Bell | 1 | 2.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 0.0 | 1.0 | 0.0 | 2.0 | 0.0 |
