MY ACCOUNT
Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan surpassed the great Michael Jordan with a 40-point haul against the San Antonio Spurs, and took heed from another sporting legend.
DeRozan has been in sensational form for the Bulls this season and was their key player as they ran out 120-109 winners over the Spurs on Monday.
The 32-year-old finished witih 40 points, three rebounds and seven assists. He has the most points in the NBA this season, having amassed 1,509 across 54 appearances at an average of 27.9 per game (the fourth best in the NBA).
Trae Young, of the Atlanta Hawks, ranks second for points on 1,412 – 97 behind DeRozan.
The Bulls talisman has now put himself into the team record books, too, with his showing against the Spurs marking his sixth consecutive 35-point game.
That passes the previous record of five, set by Jordan, who achieved that feat four times across his illustrious career, last doing so in the 1996-97 season.
After writing his name into Bulls folklore, DeRozan revealed he channelled the advice of boxing great Floyd Mayweather Jr.
“I’m not a knockout puncher. I want to wear you down because I know I can go the length, however long I need to go,” DeRozan said, recalling a conversation he had with Mayweather several years ago.
“Every shot that I take is a shot that I work on. I’m just not shooting a shot just to be shooting it. I just try to lock in every time it’s time to score.”
The Bulls needed DeRozan to be at his best, with Chicago trailing by six points heading into the final quarter.
DeRozan scored 13 of the Bulls’ next 15 points to inspire the comeback.
“It’s not only the scoring piece, which is absolutely incredible what he does, the other piece of it is just his basketball IQ, his experience, how savvy he is,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan told reporters.
The Bulls (37-21) are second in the Eastern Conference with a 63.8 win percentage.
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich bemoaned mistakes from his team, but conceded DeRozan was just too good.
“The combination of him being super and us not executing very well was a big contributor to losing the game,” he said.
