One night after having ball security issues in an overtime loss to Toronto, a quick talk by head coach Billy Donovan and a late-game opportunity to play hero resulted in one of Dosunmu’s best plays of his rookie campaign.
Ayo Dosunmu went into the Indiana game ready to “go through a wall.’’
Meet Pacers big men Terry Taylor and Oshae Brissett … aka “the wall.’’
To be fair, Dosunmu didn’t exactly go through them. The rookie from Morgan Park High School went through them and over them, all but snatching their souls in one of the nastier dunks of the season for a Bulls player.
And it wasn’t just the dunk that was awe inspiring, but when it happened.
Indiana was clawing its way back into a game it had no business being in, and after Justin Holiday hit a huge three-pointer with 36.4 seconds left, the undermanned home team cut the Bulls lead to just three.
Bulls coach Billy Donovan called a timeout with 27.4 seconds after a clunky showing of his offense to just get the inbounds over half-court, and went back to a play he was running earlier in the game for veteran DeMar DeRozan before Indiana started double-teaming the All-Star forward.
This time, however, he put it in the hands of Dosunmu and gave him the option of passing it to DeRozan if the double-team wasn’t there or continue downhill to the rim.
Why the hands of the 22-year-old second-round pick?
Rewind to 24 hours earlier.
Dosunmu has put up very few clunkers since taking over the starting point guard duties last month. The overtime loss in Toronto on Thursday included a 5-for-12 shooting night, but even worse a bad turnover for Dosunmu.
Trailing by two in the extra stanza and just 56.6 seconds left, Dosunmu made a horrible pass that the Raptors’ Chris Boucher gladly nabbed. Twenty seconds later, a second bad pass resulted in a steal, this time Gary Trent Jr.
The Bulls didn’t score again, losing by seven.
Donovan wanted to have a quick heart-to-heart with Dosunmu, but waited until the following morning.
“After the loss I didn’t talk to Coach until morning,’’ Dosunmu said of his previous 24 hours. “And it was like one of those times like when you get in trouble in school and you don’t know how your parents are going to react. So he called me [Friday] morning and he was like, ‘Ayo, I want to talk to you.’ I was thinking he was going to be upset, of course.’’
Seldom is Donovan upset, and definitely not with Dosunmu and everything he’s done this season, but rookies will be rookies.
“[Donovan] came to me and asked, ‘Ayo, what did you learn from yesterday?’ ‘’ Dosunmu recalled. “I told him that [what I learned was] picking up my dribble on the baseline and having better court awareness in the game. And he was like, ‘Cool, you got it!’
“I was like, ‘That’s it?’ He’s like, ‘Yeah.’ ‘’
So much for that scary call home or that trip to the principal’s office.
Not only did Dosunmu get a better understanding of how Donovan worked, but it was the kind of coaching that did more than just move Dosunmu. It inspired him.
For a guy that has shown an ability to learn quickly, and remain confident the entire time in doing so, it was just another green light for his evolution.
“That exchange right there, that just makes me want to come out here and go through a wall for [Donovan] and compete for him because I know he believes in me,’’ Dosunmu said.
Donovan definitely does, but so does that entire Bulls locker room.
“A really, really great play,’’ center Nikola Vucevic said of the Dosunmu dunk. “Makes that big play at the end, it just shows his character, and the poise he plays with.’’
And when the occasion calls for it, the walls he’ll run through.
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/9IEeO8z
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