Chicago Bulls: 2 studs, 1 dud, from pivotal win over Cavs
Chicago Bulls studs from pivotal win over the Cavs: DeMar DeRozan
You can’t go talking about this big win over the Cavs without mentioning the play of four-time All-Star forward DeMar DeRozan. The Bulls saw DeRozan come out with a different energy in this game. He was hot for the Bulls on both ends of the floor right from the get-go. It was apparent that the return of Caruso to the rotation had a positive impact on defense for DeRozan on this night.
DeRozan definitely wasn’t playing poorly for the Bulls during the four-game losing streak. But we also didn’t see that same fire out of DeRozan in the last few games that we did prior to the turn of the calendar year from 2021 to 2022. This was really the first game where DeRozan was truly looking like an MVP contender for a winning Bulls team.
In this win over the Cavs, DeRozan registered an impressive 30 points on 14-of-24 shooting from the field, didn’t have any attempts from beyond the arc, and 2-of-5 from the free-throw line. This was an off night at the charity stripe for DeRozan.
He also came up with two rebounds, seven assists, one steal, two blocks, and four turnovers. DeRozan was making plays all over the place for the Bulls, including on the defensive end, which was a nice surprise in this game.
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If this is the version of DeRozan that the Bulls are going to get in spots for the rest of the month of January, this team is going to start getting on the right side of the win column much more often. DeRozan was truly the MVP for the Bulls in this game, helping spark the team end-to-end to get this 13-point win over the Cavs.