DeMar DeRozan’s eventful night during Wednesday's loss to the New Orleans Pelicans included him drawing his fourth technical foul of the young season, which ties him for the NBA lead with Draymond Green and Kevin Durant.
Ever the player’s coach, Chicago Bulls head coach Billy Donovan had DeRozan’s back.
“My feeling is there are fouls that need to be called that aren’t being called,” Donovan said.
One of those might be DeRozan’s missed 5-footer with 25.8 seconds left. It will be intriguing to monitor whether Thursday’s Last Two Minute Report from the league office determines if Zion Williamson, who moved to contest the shot late, made contact. No call was made.
“I thought I was fouled,” DeRozan said.
DeRozan, who consistently ranks among the league leaders in free-throw attempts, is averaging 8.4 free throws per game. He regularly uses his pump fake to draw fouls, both legitimate and borderline.
Nevertheless, Donovan thinks DeRozan should be going to the line even more. And that’s why Donovan brushed off DeRozan’s league-leading technical foul total.
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“I’ve been around some guys who are high-level guys who get fouled, like having Russell Westbrook for four years. Sometimes those guys that score like that and are high-foul guys, a lot of times those calls aren’t made,” Donovan said. “And I do think (DeRozan’s) getting hit on certain situations. I’m not saying they’re all shooting fouls.
“And I think what happens over a period of time---and I’m speaking for DeMar; I don’t know if he feels this way---when you feel there are calls being missed and you’re getting hit, after awhile that kind of builds up. I think he re-gathered himself.
“But I think there are times he’s going in there and you can see clearly there’s contact and he can get calls. Officials aren’t going to be perfect. He’s not going to get every single call. But I think a lot of times when guys are high-volume free-throw shooters, generally more often than not, they should be going to the line more than they are.”
DeRozan, who is annually one of the league’s best closer, also committed two fourth-quarter turnovers, including one with 17.4 seconds left in which he simply botched Goran Dragic’s inbounds pass coming out of a timeout with the Bulls down by three.
“That was on me. I’ll take that. It wasn’t nobody else’s fault,” DeRozan said. “I should’ve caught it.
“It sucks. It’s frustrating as hell just not giving ourselves an opportunity to see what could’ve happened. I had a turnover out of bounds that led to them getting out [for CJ McCollum layup with 2:08 left]. It was a couple key mental mistakes on my part.”
DeRozan finished with 33 points, his fifth game already with 30 or more points.