mobile app bar

“DeMar DeRozan is a completely different dude in the playoffs”: Fans criticize Bulls All-Star for going down without much fight on the back of a career best season

Akash Murty
Published

"DeMar DeRozan is a completely different dude in the playoffs": Fans criticize Bulls All-Star for going down without much fight on the back of a career best season

An All-Star DeMar DeRozan in the regular season and his postseason struggles have been inseparable stories for years, it stays that way.

Barring Nikola Vucevic, every player in the Chicago Bulls uniform let their team down in the Playoffs. Most of all, it was the team’s MVP that failed all the hopes in Chicago that he himself had woken up after so many years of dead basketball in the city.

Most superstars in the league up their game come post-season, but DeMar DeRozan, who has had a career-high regular season, significantly outperformed himself in a colder way.

Also read: “Other than Tim Duncan, Giannis is the most humble, quiet superstar I’ve ever been around”: Charles Barkley on his admiration towards Greek Freak’s work ethic 

The former Raptors’ superstar was averaging well over 27 points, 5 rebounds, and 5 assists in the regular season, but could manage merely 20.8 points, 5.4 rebounds, and 4.8 assists in the 5 games beating against Giannis Antetokounmpo and Co.

There can be discussions that had the Bulls ended their season in a better way than losing their last 4 out of 5 matches in such a disrespectful fashion, they could have had a better seeding and also some momentum coming in. But we know Deebo’s Playoffs miseries and without Zach LaVine he was all they had, so, it ended sooner rather than later.

DeMar DeRozan lets his team down yet again, NBA Twitter reacts

We know DeRozan and his struggles in Playoffs since his 5 postseasons with the Raptors, and nothing has changed since then. And NBA Twitter is letting the man know as soon as it came to know that the Bulls will be getting eliminated on Wednesday.

It’s not a big deal to lose most of your post-season battles against LeBron James’ Cavaliers, who were just second to the Warriors when the King was on the team. Nor, there’s any shame in losing to the defending NBA Champions.

But if he plays well and still his team loses, it wouldn’t be that big a deal. DeRozan has put up similar numbers in the postseason like his regular season in most of his Play-offs, but the star of a team takes many more shots than in the regular season.

Also read: “Mark Jackson made Golden State a very s*xy brand to watch, I’m sure he can do that LeBron and Russ”: Shaquille O’Neal casts his vote for Lakers coaching job

The 5x All-Star’s field goal percentage drop from 46.5 percent in the regular season to 41.8 in the post-season shows us his difficulty in performing when it matters the most. His FG% was 41 in these 5 games, whereas he was averaging 50.4% in 76 regular-season games.

So this must have been the last team he would have a chance to make a deep Playoff run with. And him staying in Chicago would mean he’d face prime Giannis for the rest of his career, having already faced prime Lebron for years in the first of his career.

About the author

Akash Murty

Akash Murty

x-iconfacebook-iconinstagram-iconlinkedin-icon

An Electrical and Electronics Engineer by degree, Akash Murty is an NBA Editor at The SportsRush. Previously a Software Engineer, Murty couldn’t keep himself away from sports, and his knack for writing and putting his opinion forward brought him to the TSR. A big Soccer enthusiast, his interest in basketball developed late, as he got access to a hoop for the first time at 17. Following this, he started watching basketball at the 2012 Olympics, which transitioned to NBA, and he became a fan of the game as he watched LeBron James dominate the league. Him being an avid learner of the game and ritually following the league for around a decade, he now writes articles ranging from throwbacks, and live game reports, to gossip. LA Lakers are his favourite basketball team, while Chelsea has his heart in football. He also likes travelling, reading fiction, and sometimes cooking.

Read more from Akash Murty

Share this article