On December 14, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, but the Bulls, another bad news came - according to ESPN reporters, sources revealed that Bulls forward Aliz Johnson tested positive for the new crown, he has triggered the league's health and safety agreement, will miss many games in the future.
Counting Aliz Johnson, the Bulls have currently triggered a health and safety agreement with 9 players, including DeRozan, LaVine, Jones Jr., Kobe White, Javent Green and many other main players - 1 team big list is also "15 +2" players, and more than half of the Bulls' players have been confirmed, which is a team failure.
Among them, DeRozan was infected on December 8, Jones Jr. was on December 10, and Lavin triggered the health and safety agreement on December 13, and according to the regulations, the three will be absent for at least 10 days.
So far this season, DeRozan has averaged 26.4 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists per game, shooting 49.8%/33.3%/88.8% from three fields and shooting 59.2% from the field, and is currently the sixth highest on the scoring list.
LaVine also performed well, averaging 26.0 points, 5.3 rebounds and 4.2 assists per game, shooting 49.0%/39.1%/84.6% from all three and shooting 60.4% from the field, and currently ranks seventh on the scoring list.
As the Bulls' record has improved a lot compared to last season, deRozan and Lavin's names have been in the top ten in the past few issues of the MVP list. DeRozan's absence, the Bulls have now suffered two straight losses, and have lost 23 points and 26 points in two games — before DeRozan's absence, the Bulls won four games in a row against the Hornets, Knicks, Nets and Nuggets.
It is worth mentioning that because of the excessive number of absences, the Bulls submitted an application to the league to postpone the game, and the league also agreed to the Bulls' request, and their games against the Pistons on Wednesday and against the Raptors on Friday have been postponed — if I remember correctly, this is the first time this season that the league has postponed the game.
I have to say that this wave of bulls is really a bit unlucky.
After Rose and Butler left, LaVine gradually grew into the core of the team, and his performance was indeed getting better and better, but in the past few years, the Bulls just couldn't make the playoffs, and Lavine's leadership ability was also questioned.
Before the trade deadline last season, the Bulls made up their minds to change blood, a number of first-round picks Gwendel carter in exchange for Vucevic, offseason, they signed a number of players including DeRozan, Brother Ball, Caruso, after some operations, the Bulls became a strong team in the league.
Originally, if there was no wave of "accidents", the Bulls were in good shape, defeating several strong teams in a row, and as a result, DeRozan's absence directly led to the team's two fiascos, and in the latest issue of the strength list, the Bulls' ranking also fell from the fourth to the eighth in the previous issue.
At this point, we have to talk about Vucevic.
So far this season, Vucevic has struggled slightly, currently averaging only 15.2 points, 10.5 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game, shooting 40.4%/34.0%/63.9% of the three-game shooting rate and shooting only 46.9% of the actual shooting rate.
For comparison, before being traded by the Magic last season, Vucevic averaged 24.5 points, 11.8 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game, 48.0%/40.6%/82.7% of the three shots, and 56.5% of the true shooting rate.
In DeRozan's absence, Vucevic, as the team's third-in-command, should stand up in time, but in the past two games, his shots have been 11 of 38 shots, 2 of 11 three-pointers, averaging only 14 points per game, with plus-minus -15 and -29 respectively.
The Bulls' record is good to say, after all, the game has been postponed, and after the comeback of DeRozan and Lavin, they are still a strong team, but Vucevic's state is really difficult to say, he himself said in the interview: "My career has been very stable, my shooting rate has been around 50%, I don't know what happened, but I have to solve the problem, it's as simple as that." ”
Honestly, since the Bulls came, Vucevic's performance has not been very good, even the free throw shooting rate has fallen seriously this season can also explain some problems, I hope he can get back to form as soon as possible, and I hope that the players who are absent from the Bulls can also return as soon as possible.