Jones spreads the hype of DeRozan's high-scoring streak
Derrick Jones Jr., back from a broken finger, played the role of hype man for teammate DeMar DeRozan on Saturday.
DeRozan has been on a crazy roll, scoring 35 points in five straight games and 30 in six straight. The last Bulls player to score 35 in five straight was Michael Jordan, of course, in November of 1996.
Jones was effusive with thoughts on DeRozan's scoring run after the win over Oklahoma City.
"Nobody can stop him," Jones said. "Everybody I know on opposite teams that I'm cool with, they just seem to somehow be matched up with him.
"Me personally, I'm going to let you know how bad of a night you're going to have guarding him. I'm going to talk my trash for him. He ain't even got to say nothing to you, I'm going to talk it for him."
Asked if he gets any response to his teammate trash talk, Jones said no.
"Not to him, not to me either. He's right there, he's going to make you look even stupider," he said. "It's incredible, just to be able to witness this. He's an incredible player, I've been saying this since I got into the league.
"I told him before I'm glad I'm on his team now so I ain't got to be the one guarding him all those darn shot fakes. He's an incredible player, he's on an incredible roll and I just hope he keeps it up."
Speaking of shot fakes, Jones was asked why so many players struggle to stay on their feet while DeRozan is getting set to launch. He hit 12 of 14 free throws against the Thunder.
"I can't stay down on it, so I can't tell you," Jones said. "It's hard to do it. That's his game, you can know that's his game as much as you want, you can watch as much film as you want, but you're going to jump. No matter what, you're going to jump.
"There's no way that you're going to stop it. You're either going to jump for the pump fake or he's going to hit the midrange, so you choose. Pick your poison."
Jones also commented on DeRozan's laid-back personality. So many high-scoring NBA players have sort of an over-the-top competitiveness, whether it's Kevin Durant talking trash to fans during games or Jordan taking offense to perceived slights in his 50s.
But DeRozan remains the old guy who shows up to the pickup game, schooling all the young kids while dispensing wisdom. He even seemed to have fun battling notorious defensive disrupter Patrick Beverley on Friday.
"That's just who he is," Jones said. "He's just a laid-back guy. He leads by example. He speaks, and when he speaks everybody hears him. He's more of an actions guy.
"If he tells you we need to do something, he's going to be the first one out there doing it. That's the one thing I respect about his game. He's always been a man of his word and he always act upon it."
Looking at DeRozan's 35-point streak, the overall numbers are impressive: 38.4 points, 59.8% shooting, 5.2 assists, 6.2 rebounds and 10.4 free-throw attempts per game.
In his 13th NBA season, DeRozan is now averaging a career-high 27.7 points. His 51.2% shooting is second-best in his career.
Looking back at some of Jordan's streaks, his 35-point run in 1996 all happened on the road during the annual circus trip around Thanksgiving.
Jordan didn't string together big games like that very often in the championship years, but did some of his best work in the playoffs. In the 1990 second round vs. Philadelphia, he scored 39, 45, 49, 45 and 37 points. Against Cleveland in the 1988 first round, he went 50, 55, 38, 44 and 39.
In 1986-87, before Scottie Pippen and Horace Grant arrived, Jordan had nine straight 40-point games.
Before leaving the podium, Jones was asked if he'd be willing to identify some of the DeRozan defenders he's spoken to.
"I ain't even going to put them under the bus," Jones said with a smile. "They know they got cooked. We ain't going to talk about it. They know what happened."
Twitter: @McGrawDHSports
DeRozan delivers in last five games:
Opp FGM-Att FTM-Att Pts
Phi 18-30 9-11 45
Phx 16-27 6-8 38
at Cha 13-19 7-10 36
Min 14-22 7-7 35
OKC 12-24 12-14 38
Avg. .598 .827 38.4