On March 23, Beijing time, the NBA regular season continued, the Bulls defeated the Bucks 98-126 away, the first 8 minutes of the first quarter of this battle, the two sides also played a 20-20 draw, and then in the next 12 minutes, the Bulls suddenly muted, the Bucks took the opportunity to play a wave of 39-13, the point difference opened after the Bulls did not catch up, can only swallow a defeat.
Losing is naturally uncomfortable, especially such a hanging, but what is worse than losing is probably DeRozan's performance.
In this game, DeRozan played abnormally, he only scored 5 points in the first half, 10 of 23 in the whole game, 1 of 5 three-pointers, did not have a single free throw opportunity, only had 21 points, 4 rebounds and 2 assists, and had a plus-minus of -16 on the field, tied for the lowest starting point.
If it's just a downturn, forget it, the problem is that DeRozan has been in a slump for some time.
Since entering March, DeRozan has played a total of 11 games and scored only 30+ in 1 game, for comparison, just before entering March, DeRozan has just completed 10 consecutive 30+, of which 8 consecutive games have won 30+ with at least 50% shooting and set a new all-time record.
In addition to the reduction in scoring, DeRozan's efficiency has also decreased a lot, and in the 11 games since March, DeRozan has only shot more than 50% of the shots in one of the games, including sluggish performances:
Against the Heat, 7-of-16, with 18 points
Against the Bucks, he scored 29 points on 11-of-30
— Facing the 76ers, 6-of-17, scored 23 points
— Against the Cavaliers, he scored 25 points on 9-of-26
— Against the Kings, 7-of-17, with 21 points
Since March, DeRozan has averaged only 24.1 points, 5.6 rebounds and 4.7 assists per game, ranking only 25th in the league in scoring in the same period, and his shooting percentage is only 44.6%, his three-point shooting rate is 25.0%, and his effective shooting rate and true shooting rate are as low as 45.9% and 52.6%, respectively.
For comparison, before entering March, DeRozan's average per game was 28.3 points, 5.3 rebounds and 5.1 assists, the fifth in the league in the same period, shooting 51.7% from the field, 36.5% from three-point range, and 53.3% and 60.0% from effective and true range, respectively.
Worse still, it's the Bulls' record.
After March, the Bulls have a record of only 3 wins and 8 losses, and the opponents they have lost include not only potential playoff opponents such as the Heat, Hawks, 76ers, bucks (twice), but also western powerhouses such as the Suns and Jazz, and even weak western teams like kings.
There is also a statistic that this season the Bulls face the top three teams in the division, the record is only 0 wins and 16 losses, this number can be said to be very ugly, ugly to say that it is a "pseudo-strong team", it is difficult not to worry about where they will go in the playoffs.
Now DeRozan, kind of like... Back to the Raptors era.
The Raptors DeRozan scored a lot of points, the technology is not bad, but the efficiency is not high, compared to the 2016-17 season, this is DeRozan's highest scoring season in the Raptors, averaging 27.3 points per game, but his effective shooting rate and true shooting rate are only 46.3%, 55.0% - a little better than in March this year.
Of course, there are not enough samples to say that DeRozan must have regressed to the Raptors era, but the situation is really not optimistic, DeRozan is facing a bigger challenge, after losing to the Suns, DeRozan said: "There is no doubt that this is probably the most wallet I have seen in my career." ”
DeRozan needs to find a way to overcome his current predicament, otherwise in the playoffs, he will face more oppressive defenses and more pockets, and as we all know, DeRozan has never proved himself in the playoffs, and his career playoff stats are averaging 21.9 points per game and shooting 50.3% from the field.
In the previous half of the season, DeRozan undoubtedly broke through himself, and his first real meaning entered the scope of MVP discussion, but deRozan in March, the performance was indeed not excellent, and the Bulls' "record against strong teams" was also very worrying - it has been proved that most of the season, the fan impression has not changed, and I hope that Azan and the Bulls can stick to it.