Bulls rookie Matas Buzelis announces his arrival with a breakout game
The NBA announced on Tuesday that Matas Buzelis would participate in the 2025 Slam Dunk Contest over the All-Star Weekend.
On the same night, Buzelis announced he’s arrived.
Building on his recent increase in minutes, the Bulls rookie had a breakout game against the Heat, finishing with a career-high 24 points on a perfect 10-of-10 shooting (4-of-4 from three-point range) in the 133-124 win.
Not exactly what a tanking team needs, but considering the Bulls (22-29) had a chance to watch their 20-year-old forward get in a season-high 31 minutes of work on top of it, they weren’t exactly going to stand in the way of progress.
And as far as calling it a breakout game for Buzelis, the always confident rookie wasn’t into labels.
“I’ve honestly always had that,” Buzelis said of some of the drives he made at the rim. “It’s just about displaying it now. I’ve always had the point-guard moves.
“My confidence right now is high, but you’ve got to stay humble. My dad always tells me the sun comes up tomorrow, so you got to go back to work. You guys can call it (a breakout game), it doesn’t matter to me. Breakout, I’m going to play the same way every night.”
What was also impressive was it was Buzelis that kept the Bulls afloat, keeping them in the game until they could strike. Strike they did in the final quarter, outscoring Miami 39-21 led by 12 points by Josh Giddey and not turning the ball over a single time.
Giddey finished with 24 points, while Coby White chipped in 22.
Been there, done that
Bulls coach Billy Donovan compared going through a rebuild with the Bulls to his days when he was coaching the Florida Gators to back-to-back National Championships.
“This is how I view it for myself, and I know it’s a totally different situation, but from a coaching perspective it’s very, very similar,” Donovan said. “You know when you have Joakim Noah, Al Horford, Corey Brewer, I think it was the first time in the history of the NBA that three players from one team went in the top 10, and when those guys leave, rebuild, retool, whatever word you want to use, you are starting over. And really in college that’s what I dealt with all the time.”