DeRozan's Fourth-Quarter Fuels Bulls Revenge Game

No LaVine, no problem. DeMar DeRozan went back to his fourth-quarter ways in the Bulls' first game back since a little over a week ago. As the Bulls continue to navigate the Covid-19 outbreak that caused them to postpone two of their regular-season games, the current team is back to picking up wins. The team beat the Los Angeles Lakers at home Sunday night, 115-110. DeRozan's 19 fourth-quarter points helped seal the deal against his hometown team. The Bulls were without half of their fourth-quarter duo, LaVine, along with Matt Thomas, Ayo Dosunmu, Alize Johnson and Troy Brown Jr. due to Covid-19 protocols. Even without plenty of the roster intact versus the Lakers, DeRozan's performance was imminent of his frustration with the Lakers this past offseason.

Revenge Game

Back in the summer, the Lakers were one of the three finalists to sign DeRozan as an unrestricted free agent, along with the Bulls and the Clippers. I talked about this occurrence back when the news was timely as a testament to Marc Eversley's hustle to meet with DeRozan in LA and pitch him the Chicago Bulls. DeRozan said the conversations with the Lakers "didn't work" even though at one point DeRozan mentioned he thought the deal with his hometown team was a "done deal."

“I felt like going to the Lakers was a done deal and that we were going to figure it out. I was going to come home,” DeRozan said, according to Chris Haynes of Yahoo Sports. “The business side of things just didn’t work out. A couple of things didn’t align. It didn’t work out. It’s just part of the business, part of the game. My next option was definitely Chicago. So, looking back at it, it worked out well."

On Sunday night, during the Bulls' second matchup against DeRozan's would-have-been team, he balled out. DeRozan dropped 38 points on the Lakers, shooting 11-of-24 from the field and an uncanny 16-of-17 from the free-throw line. He added four rebounds and six assists to his statement game against the Lakers. While the Lakers allegedly chose Russell Westbrook over DeRozan in free agency, who is carrying a negative floor rating for the second time in his career this season, DeRozan is showing the Lakers they made a mistake. Luckily for Chicago, DeRozan continues to dominate the fourth quarter and fill the void for the perennial crunch time losses the Bulls suffered in past seasons. He took unfathomable, highly-contested mid-range shots -- like always -- and forced his way to the charity stripe for a season-high 17 times. His frequent trips to the line were recognized by LeBron James, who after a shooting foul he committed on DeRozan at the left elbow, gave him a pat on the back before smacking his hands in disappointment. A clear sign of defeat, and sweet revenge.

Another revenge game

Speaking of revenge games, Alex Caruso stuck it to his old team on both sides of the ball on Sunday night. Caruso scored a season-high 17 points on 6-of-11 shooting, adding nine rebounds and two assists to his night. Similar to DeRozan, things didn't work out between Caruso and his former team.

"We got that offer, went back to LA, asked if they could do the same," Caruso admitted on the J.J Redick podcast. "They said no. Asked for something else that was a little less. Said no. I said, OK, that what it comes to. Ready to go to Chicago and start the next chapter."

According to Caruso, he finally had leverage in his status as an elite NBA player to financially secure himself and he wasn't able to do that with the team he won a championship with. Nonetheless, with his new home in Chicago, Caruso showed out for his best offensive performance of the season and a win over his former team.

Bulls are moving forward

The Bulls are not expected to retain any players from the Covid protocol list before Monday's game against the Rockets. Moreover, they might be without backup forward Derrick Jones Jr. due to a hamstring injury Jones suffered versus the Lakers. The squad will have to rely on the lineup they submitted versus the Lakers to keep them afloat until they can return all of their missing pieces. In relevant NBA news, the NBA announced teams can sign as many hardship exception players up to the number of players missing due to Covid protocols. Expect the number of current postponements to end up as the final number come the end of the season. The Bulls play the Rockets on Monday night, hoping to obtain more revenge citing the loss they suffered against them earlier this season.