CHICAGO- The Chicago Bulls picked up a big win at home on Friday night over the Portland Trail Blazers, and Chicago is now back in ninth place in the Eastern Conference. Rookie Matas Buzelis picked a great game for his first career double-double as a late three helped lift the Bulls to a 118-113 win, and it put him in double figures to secure the first-time feat. Buzelis finished with 12 points and 12 rebounds.
Matas Buzelis airballed a three-pointer late in the fourth quarter, but he still had the confidence to shoot the next one. The next one just so happened to give the Bulls a five-point lead with under two minutes to go. Not a lot of rookies would’ve been able to attempt such a big shot just one minute after a horrid miss, but Buzelis is different.
“After the airball, you could tell, he was upset. He’s not really afraid of the moment,” Bulls head coach Billy Donovan told the media after the game. “Whatever he did to course-correct there, give himself an opportunity to make that one, and he did, but he’s always kind of leaned into stuff. A lot of young players think that sometimes mistakes are not part of the growth and development piece.”
Mistakes are just part of the game at this stage of Buzelis’ career. He knows that they are unavoidable, and he doesn’t shy away from them.
“… It doesn’t distract him, it doesn’t discourage him, it doesn’t get him down,” Donovan continued. “He has a really good mindset about, ‘That’s how I have to get better. I gotta be able to go through this, and then I have to be able to learn from it.’ I give him credit for, one, taking the one he missed, but then also taking the next one. I think that showed great toughness for him, and the belief that our team has in him, the fact that they threw it to him again.”
Every game down the stretch is big for the Bulls as they battle for seeding in the Eastern Conference. They are currently tied with the Miami Heat, but the Bulls own the tiebreaker. The difference between ninth and 10th place is a big one as home-court advantage is on the line. These last five regular season games for the Bulls are huge.
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