On January 2, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, and the Bulls defeated the Wizards 120-119 away from home, ushering in seven consecutive wins, while continuing to sit in the first place in the East with a record of 24 wins and 10 losses.
In the process, the Bulls were almost a full game behind, and did not chase the score to a 112-112 draw until 2 minutes left in the fourth quarter, and the next 2 minutes, the plot was really wonderful:
— With 1 minute and 55 seconds left, Beal scored on a layup to give the Wizards a 114-112 lead
— With 1 minute and 43 seconds left, LaVine scored three points to give the Bulls a 115-114 lead
— With 1 minute and 28 seconds left, Beal hit two free throws to give the Wizards a 116-115 lead
— With 49.2 seconds left, DeRozan hit both free throws to give the Bulls a 117-116 lead
The most exciting thing is the last two waves of attacks.
With 10.6 seconds left, the Wizards made the final attack, Beal broke through, encountered a two-man bag, and then passed Kuzma outside the three-point line, who directly shot at Jones Jr., hit a three-point shot, and the Wizards overtook the Bulls again at 119-117, and only left 3.3 seconds for the opponent.
It wasn't over yet, with 3.3 seconds left, Kobe White served from the sideline, passed to DeRozan, who dribbled a step back to the bottom line, faked a move to swing Kispert, and then shot straight at Bill, whistled, the ball was scored, the kill was killed, and the Bulls took away the victory 120-119.
You read that right, it's DeRozan again, it's another three-point kill.
Just a day earlier, the Bulls had a away win over the Pacers, also DeRozan, who completed a three-point shootout against Craig in the final moments, when there were only 6 seconds left, the Bulls trailed 105-106, DeRozan held the ball and shot directly on horseback, and then pressed the whistle to kill the game.
After completing this kill, DeRo favored the first player in history to complete a whistle-to-whistle kill in a back-to-back game, and both of these kills were three-point kills in a backward situation – more difficult to reproduce.
Interestingly, yesterday's Kill Walkers happened to be the last day of 2021 in US time, and today's Kill Prodigy is the first day of 2021 - with two whistle kills to complete the New Year's Eve, nothing could be more wonderful than this, and even DeRozan said: "I don't know if I'm dreaming, or if all this is true now." ”
Back in the game, in addition to the two kills, DeRozan's performance was also very good:
— Against the Pacers, 28 points, 3 rebounds and 6 assists, plus-minus +18
- Against the Wizards, 28 points, 9 rebounds and 5 assists, plus-minus +12
It is worth mentioning that in the two games, DeRozan only shot two three-pointers in total, and both were all deadly, in addition, DeRozan played a total of 70 minutes in two games, the Bulls won by 30 points, and in the 26 minutes he was not present, the Bulls lost 29 points to the opponent.
Zooming in to the entire season, DeRozan currently averages 26.8 points, 5.1 rebounds and 4.6 assists per game, shooting 49.5%/37.3%/87.6% from three fields and shooting 58.8% from the field.
What is valuable is that the more critical the moment, the stronger DeRozan becomes:
In the fourth quarter, DeRozan averaged 8.0 points per game, the league first, shooting 53%/54%/88% of the three shots.
- In key moments (within a five-point gap in the last five minutes), DeRozan shot 20 of 36 from the field and shot 56%/100%/96% from three fields.
DeRozan generally doesn't choose three-point shots at key moments, and so far this season, he has only shot two three-pointers in this situation, and these two three-pointers are the two back-to-back kills above.
This year's Azan is really different.
In previous years, fans mentioned DeRozan as a "garbage brother", "pseudo-superstar", "inefficient", and in the ESPN rankings two years ago, DeRozan was even ranked 82nd.
But this year, the keywords about DeRozan have become "MVP", "Best Squad", "King of The Deadly", "King of the Last Quarter", and he really beat those negative reviews back.
Of course, deRozan also has a label that has not been torn off - "playoff downturn", the current Bulls momentum is just right, playing in the playoffs should not be a big problem, I hope Azan can completely prove himself this year, this opportunity, he has waited too long.