Bulls win as another DeRozan explosion takes down Spurs
DeMar DeRozan wore silver and black sneakers Monday, a tribute to his former teammates from San Antonio.
He said several Spurs were at his house Sunday watching the Super Bowl.
The Spurs honored DeRozan by being physical on defense, sending triple teams his way and putting up a spirited effort.
None of it mattered.
DeRozan scored an efficient 40 points and the Bulls pulled out a 120-109 victory, their fourth straight, at the United Center.
A different officiating crew might have sent DeRozan to the foul line 20 times. He shot just 8 free throws in this one despite Dejounte Murray, Keldon Johnson and Lonnie Walker bringing plenty of heat.
"One thing about all those guys, that was the intensity we had in practice competing versus each other," DeRozan said. "I always talked smack to them, kind of get the juices going and their compete level was always on 10 against me, because that was just the character they all had and I had.
"We tried to push each other and make each other better. I expected them to come out and play like how they played tonight versus me."
Maybe that's why DeRozan is having arguably the best of his 13 NBA seasons. It's been historic recently, as he's scored at least 30 points in seven straight and 35-plus in six straight.
On Monday, DeRozan hit 16 of 24 shots overall, but he started off 1-for-6. That means he finished 15-for-18 and hit 8 of 9 attempts for 19 points in the fourth quarter.
"Great players, there are so many of them, they can score by taking a truckload of shots," coach Billy Donovan said. "To me, the thing that's so impressive is the efficiency with which he's doing it. His shooting percentages are mind-boggling."
DeRozan has shot at least 50% from the field in every game during his streak. According to ESPN, that ties Wilt Chamberlain for the longest such stretch in NBA history.
You have to go all the way back to the 1987-88 season to find the last time a Bulls player scored 35 points in six straight games. Michael Jordan scored 46 in the regular season finale, then at least 38 in the first five playoff games. Sticking to the regular season, Jordan strung together seven in a row from Feb. 19 to March 3, 1988. He had 46, 49 and 52 during that stretch.
After the game, DeRozan talked about how he was bothered earlier in the career by being called a high-volume shooter.
"I always wondered how you can get away from that label and that's just understanding shot selection, what you work on, rhythm and extreme concentration," he said.
"Every shot I take is a shot I work on. I'm not shooting a shot just to be shooting it. I just try to lock in every time it's time to score. I just got to my spots and treated it like I was in the gym by myself."
Early in the fourth quarter, DeRozan dealt one of his classic scoring runs - two minutes, five possessions, 10 points, no misses.
After a brief rest later in the quarter, he raced off the bench and immediately hit a 20-footer over Keita Bates-Diop. After his first miss of the fourth quarter, DeRozan added 2 free throws after taking an elbow from Doug McDermott, then hit Nikola Vucevic for a fast-break dunk to put the Bulls up 114-108 with 1:53 left.
Vucevic had another big game, with 25 points and 16 rebounds. Coby White was hot early and matched his season-high with 24 points.
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