Undermanned Bulls and Matas Buzelis pull out the victory on South Beach
MIAMI – Coby White and Nikola Vucevic strolled into the locker room on the late bus, getting the night off because of the build-up of minutes lately.
Josh Giddey, Tre Jones, Jalen Smith and Zach Collins were all in street clothes, battling injuries.
It had all the makings of a Matas Buzelis night on Saturday.
After all, the second year forward was the highest-scoring player available for the rematch with the Heat and had a nice week going with 20 points against Indiana on Wednesday, following that up with 16 the other night.
That’s the thing about expectations for young players, however. Some nights they blow way past them and other nights they hit their heads on the way up.
In the 125-118 Bulls win, Buzelis did both. He was shaky with his shooting and decision making in the first half, yet still had the confidence to nail a game-deciding three-pointer with 39.1 seconds left. That’s why he finished with 21 points, eight rebounds and eight turnovers.
A reminder that while he may be the closest player on the entire roster to a high-ceiling guy, he’s not there yet. The message from Bulls coach Billy Donovan remained the same on Buzelis: Give him time.
“This is just how I view it: There are really a lot of talented guys in this league,” Donovan said. “You can go around the league to any team and there’s talent. The other part to me is what goes on from the shoulders up? That’s the thing for me that separates certain guys. I think he’s got the ability in that area. One, he’s not afraid of moments. I do think that he is a guy to quickly move on from mistakes. I do think he’s got a really good work ethic, I do think he’s really competitive, but there is a lot of he doesn’t know yet how that is.
“I trust that he has the potential to become that player, but it is going to be a process of how well does he make players around him better? How well does he lean into physically being stronger and being able to defend a lot of different positions, being able to rebound. He’s shown signs of doing that stuff.”
What Donovan should have been truly thankful for was Ayo Dosunmu, who single-handedly kept the Bulls afloat late.
A three-pointer with just under three minutes left, a lay-up on the next possession, another three with 2:09 left in the game, and yet another layup, scoring 10 of his 29 in crunch time.
The problem was Miami answered basket for basket, at least until Buzelis put a final stamp on the game. Dosunmu came up with a huge steal with 1:13 left and found a streaking Buzelis for the breakaway dunk, and after the Heat’s Jaime Jaquez Jr. missed the lay-up, Buzelis confidently stepped into a 25-footer to increase the lead to five.
The win ended a three-game losing streak for the Bulls (24-25) and more importantly gave them a chance to regroup and get ready for the third game against Miami in the last four nights.
All eyes on Buzelis to see how he follows this one up.
“I do like that he’s been in some crucial moments and he doesn’t back away from those,” Donovan added of Buzelis when discussing his chase for stardom. “I do think he has that kind of make-up that he gets there, now whether he gets there or not we’ll wait and see, but he’s got some good things that he’s working with from the shoulders up. He just needs to physically and mentally mature.”
Meanwhile, minutes after the win sources confirmed that the Bulls acquired Dario Saric and two second-round picks in a three-team trade with Cleveland and Sacramento. To make room for Saric, Emanuel Miller was sent out while Jevon Carter was waived.