Chicago Bulls: 2 studs, 1 dud, from massive win over Lakers

Chicago Bulls studs from win over the Lakers: DeMar DeRozan

The other stud on this list for the Bulls was truly the driving force to the team getting this big five-point win over the Lakers at home to round out the weekend. Star shooting guard/forward DeMar DeRozan was huge for the Bulls on this night, giving them a game-high 38 points.

DeRozan got his whopping 38 points on 11-of-24 shooting from the field, didn’t have any attempts from beyond the arc, and 16-of-17 from the free-throw line. This is the highest number of free-throw attempts that DeRozan had in his run with the Bulls thus far through more than two-dozen games now.

It was the number of times that DeRozan got to the free-throw line that helped the Bulls to get this win in the end. If not for DeRozan’s 16 makes on 17 tries from the charity stripe, it becomes extremely difficult for the Bulls to win.

What was the most memorable part about this game for DeRozan was the way he was able to put the Lakers away. DeRozan seemed like he was draining mid-range attempt after mid-range attempt here. He also now has 50 points combined in the last three fourth quarters he’s played in.

https://twitter.com/overtime/status/1472773006699159553

DeRozan also gave the Bulls four rebounds, six assists, one steal, no blocks, and three turnovers. He really didn’t turn the ball over much at all for how much usage he got in this game. The fact that DeRozan was able to excel in finding his teammates, shooting so many field goals from the mid-range, whilst still getting around 1.5 points per field goal attempt is truly impressive.

If this is going to be the version of DeRozan that the Bulls get, that still has ice in his veins in the fourth quarter, then this team is going to be fine without LaVine in the mix for a few games against teams like the Houston Rockets and Raptors. DeRozan was huge for the Bulls here and is the main reason why the Bulls beat the Lakers.