TORONTO — Veteran DeMar DeRozan wasn’t just frustrated Friday night. He was rip-a-towel-in-half, ejected-from-the-game, toss-a-jersey-in-the-hallway frustrated — the lowest of the low.
And after a 121-108 loss to the Raptors that dropped the Bulls to 5-12 and prevented them from reaching the knockout round of the NBA’s In-Season Tournament, he was searching for some sort of hope.
“I don’t know, man,” DeRozan said. “The true standard of a person is who they become when adversity hits. [To] be honest with you, it is frustrating, losing when we have opportunities, self-inflicted, putting ourselves down. To be honest with you, it’s beyond frustrating. [We’ll] sleep on it. It’s going to be a long night. All about how you respond from it.”
DeRozan might not be the best player to give “respond” advice, considering he was ejected with 1.4 seconds left as Raptors All-Star forward Pascal Siakim was still putting up three-pointers with the shot clock turned off and the game well in hand. Siakim said afterward that he was still looking to score because the In-Season Tournament uses point differential. Problem was, the Raptors (8-8) were already eliminated before Friday’s game.
DeRozan had choice words for the Raptors’ bench before and while he was leaving the court.
“I don’t care about no In-Season Tournament point,” he said. “None of that. Just respect for the game.”
Asked if he could share what he said to the bench, he said, “Probably not.”
“Everybody [was] yelling from [the Raptors’ bench], ‘Score, score, score,’ ” he said. “Take the win, get out of here. Whether you need the [tournament] points or not, just for the respect I have for my opponents, hold the ball, especially if there’s no shot clock [on]. That’s just me.”
Coach Billy Donovan said he received his own explanation of the situation.
“It’s like an NBA thing from the standpoint of it’s a tournament, how much you win by matters, and that was the explanation I got,” he said. “I always feel like I never try to worry about anybody else’s team. We need to do what we’ve got to do.”
And that in itself has been an issue for the Bulls, who remain painful to watch and have had epic failures in playing with urgency, especially early in games. After a pull-up jumper by Raptors guard OG Anunoby, then a three-pointer by guard Gary Trent Jr., the Bulls were behind by 12 in less than six minutes. By the time the first quarter ended, they trailed 36-22.
It was the 13th game this season in which they trailed after the opening quarter. With an average of 24 points, they also held on to their status as the worst-shooting team in the first quarter.
As bad as they are in the first, the Bulls seem to come to life in the fourth. After trailing by 18 with 9:21 left Friday, guard Zach LaVine hit a three-pointer that cut it to 12. A three-pointer by guard Coby White and a dunk by forward Patrick Williams made it just a seven-point deficit, leading to a Raptors timeout.
Credit the Raptors for the quick adjustment: They came out of the timeout and were all business on both ends of the floor, stretching the lead back to 14 within three minutes.
“There’s enough here,” DeRozan said. “It’s just about finding that right combination for it to hit on all cylinders consistently. It seems like we’re all over the place.”
