SAN FRANCISCO – Matas Buzelis wasn’t hearing things.
Someone behind him on the Bulls bench did actually tell him to shoot it just eight seconds into the shot clock and nursing a five-point lead with 32 seconds left in the overtime. Not exactly textbook clock management but why fight it when you’re on a heater.
Besides, Billy Donovan wanted his second-year forward to be more decisive? Well, there you go, Coach!
“I said to him, ‘Matas, we were up whatever it was five or six, (less than) 40 seconds to go and you bomb a three from the corner, I mean …’ And I loved his decisiveness on that, and he told me, ‘Well someone on the bench told me to shoot it.’ I said, ‘OK, that’s great,’ “ Donovan said.
It actually wasn’t great in that moment, but in the big picture, not bad. Plus, Donovan wasn’t going to argue with the 21-year-old who was on his way to score a career-high 41 points in the 130-124 win over Golden State. Especially not after the chat they had a few weeks ago.
The night before a Feb. 24 game with Charlotte, Buzelis came into the Advocate Center for some late-night shooting and of course Donovan was still in his office diving into film study. The perfect opportunity for coach to have a sit-down with player.
The main topic was about Buzelis being decisive with the ball. If he’s going to shoot, shoot. If he’s not, then get off of it and move the ball.
All Buzelis did the next night against the Hornets was score a then-career high of 32 points, and since that showcase averaged 24 points per game, shot 50.5% from the field, averaged nine three-point-shot attempts (38.9%) and grabbed 6.7 rebounds.
The 41 points and doing it in a win was the cherry on top.
“I know what I’m capable of on the court,” Buzelis said. “I always believe. You know Billy, I’m riding with Billy forever. He’s an amazing guy; he tells you the truth all the time. You can appreciate that when someone tells you what you need to hear instead of all the other talk, which just isn’t true. He’s going to always stand up for you and he’s somebody in my life that is a huge cornerstone. I’m always going to be thankful for a coach like that, that believes in you.”
A performance like that against the Warriors doesn’t hurt the belief, especially when Donovan sees his advice to a player come to fruition that quickly.
“The easiest guy (to defend) with the way defenses are structured now is somebody that kind of holds onto the ball because when the players are not moving and bodies are not moving, people can get into shifts and loads and really shrink the floor on you,” Donovan said. “The more decisive he is when he has gaps and opportunities, and especially (Tuesday) he had some stuff going to the rim but late they were so concerned about him driving that he stopped behind a couple screens and shot some threes.
“His decisiveness is what he’s got to do. The more he holds it and figures out what he wants to do, it’s too late.”
The next step for Buzelis as this season winds down is to keep the decisive mindset, but also do it more consistently. There shouldn’t be 11-point games like there was against Oklahoma City last week.
An assignment that Buzelis was already promising to get done.
“Good things will happen if you put in the work and you believe in yourself, but you have to put in the work at the end of the day because if you don’t you’re just cheating yourself,” Buzelis said. “My mindset before I go into a game is everything is earned, nothing is given, nothing is a guarantee. I believe I can do it consistently, but I have to do it, I have to show it.”