Basketball

Durant left the court with 3:51 left to play in the second quarter of Tuesday's 104-93 victory at the Footprint Center.

He landed on his back after stepping on Julian Champagnie's foot as he rose to take a shot and was unable to continue, despite initially trying to.

The Suns later posted on X that 14-time NBA All-Star had sustained an ankle injury, but did not provide any further details.

Budenholzer is hoping to have more clarity on Wednesday, but accepts it is down to him to get his side to click even if Durant is facing a spell out.

"I think he stepped on somebody's foot in transition, and I think at half-time it stiffened up," Budenholzer said. 

"We will have to evaluate him again in the morning, see how he feels coming out of it, see how he does overnight. 

"But it's part of our league. We're not any different. There's not a team in the league that's not dealing with some in-and-out of the lineups. 

"Hopefully we teach and start to learn a way of playing that's good for everybody, regardless of who's healthy and who's not. 

"Other people have opportunities to get more minutes. So, we'll just see how Kevin is, and you've just got to keep playing."

Devin Booker scored 29 points as the Suns weathered the loss of Durant, who finished with 13 points – a game-high at the point of his departure.

Booker passed the 15,000 career points mark early in the contest, becoming the ninth-youngest player in NBA history to reach the milestone.

"All teams, at some point through the season, have to deal with it," Booker said of his team's injury problems. 

"I think it's a special time for more opportunities for other people to get a chance. 

"Because you never know what's going to happen later in the season or even the playoffs, to where you just have to figure it out."

The Bucks set the NBA record for three-pointers made in a game with 29 as they gained some revenge against the Heat in Miami on Tuesday.

Milwaukee and Miami met for the first time since last season's playoffs, which saw the Heat surprisingly eliminate the Bucks in five games in the Eastern Conference semi-finals at Walt Disney World Resort.

But the Heat – without injured star Jimmy Butler – were no match for the Bucks, who were 29 of 51 from beyond the arc to surpass the record set by the Houston Rockets (27) in 2019.

Bucks head coach Budenholzer, whose team are eyeing their first championship since 1971, told reporters: "Some nights the basketball gods are with you a little bit, and it's probably one of those nights for us."

While it was a quiet outing for two-time reigning MVP Giannis Antetokounmpo (nine points, six rebounds and six assists), his Bucks team-mates led the way.

Khris Middleton posted 25 points on 10-of-13 shooting from the field, while he was four of five from three-point range in Milwaukee's largest road win in franchise history.

Jrue Holiday added 24 points, including six of 10 threes, Donte DiVincenzo (17 points) was five-of-six shooting from beyond the arc and Brook Lopez (14 points) contributed three of his own three-pointers.

"I knew we were shooting well," said Bucks center Lopez. "I didn't know we were anything close to that."

The Bucks were coming off a shock 130-110 rout at the hands of the New York Knicks.

But Milwaukee tied the record for the second-largest road win (47) in league history against a team that made the NBA Finals the previous season, behind the 1986 Seattle SuperSonics (56), per Stats Perform.

According to Stats Perform, the Bucks (2-2) also became the first team in NBA history to have two 35-plus point victories from their first four games of a season, having previously crushed the Golden State Warriors 138-99.

"Honestly, [we] just played hard," Holiday said. "We know the Heat way and how they're going to come out and play no matter who's playing.

"So we just wanted to take that approach."

The Chicago Bulls' Zach LaVine was responsible for one of those years. 

And of all the exceptional players at last weekend's event, the first-time All-Star from the Bulls is one of the more intriguing. 

While several All-Stars are future Hall of Famers – the Los Angeles Lakers' LeBron James, Golden State Warriors' Stephen Curry and Phoenix Suns' Chris Paul just to name a few – and others are young and established stars – the Dallas Mavericks' Luka Doncic, Utah Jazz's Donovan Mitchell, Philadelphia 76ers' Ben Simmons – LaVine is a veteran who is suddenly developing into a superstar. 

In fact, over the past five weeks, no one is scoring more than LaVine, who is averaging a league-best 32.3 points since February 6, while making exactly half of his 104 three-point attempts. 

He's been so spectacular he's played himself into max contract talk, although other discussions have had his name in various trade rumours if the rebuilding Bulls do not plan to sign him to an extension before his contract expires in 2022. 

Now in his fourth season in Chicago after spending his first three with the Minnesota Timberwolves, LaVine has the Bulls in position to participate in the Play-In Tournament and possibly earn their first postseason berth since 2016-17. 

He has the Bulls on the cusp of the playoffs behind a breakout season in which he is averaging career highs in every major category – 28.7 points per game, 5.2 rebounds per game, 5.1 assists per game and 3.5 made three-pointers per game, while shooting 52.5 per cent on all field goals and 43.5 per cent on threes. 

If those numbers look impressive, that is because they have only been reached once before in a single season in NBA history. 

LaVine joins Stephen Curry from 2015-16 as the only players ever to average 25-plus points, five-plus rebounds, five-plus assists and three-plus made three-pointers per game, while shooting 50 per cent on field goals and 40 per cent on threes. Curry won his second MVP that season while leading the Warriors to a record 73 wins. 

While Curry was already an established star at that point after winning league MVP honours and an NBA title the season prior, LaVine is unexpectedly proving that he also belongs among the upper echelon of players in the league. 

He has transformed himself into one of the league's most dangerous scorers, capable of knocking down a three-pointer, pulling up and hitting a mid-range jumper or beating his man off the dribble and finishing at the rim. 

Coming out of the All-Star break, his 167 dunks and layups are seventh-most in the NBA – and the most by any guard. And while the six-foot-six LaVine was also among the league leaders in dunks and layups last season (11th with 287), he is finishing at higher rate. 

He is converting 64.2 per cent of his dunk and layup attempts this season after making 57.4 per cent of his attempts last season, and that increase in field goal percentage of 6.8 is the eighth largest by any player six-foot-six or shorter. 

While many of the leaders among dunks and layups are big men – New Orleans Pelicans power forward Zion Williamson, Milwaukee Bucks power forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and Jazz centre Rudy Gobert – who live in the paint, the dynamic LaVine is just as much of a threat to knock down a three-pointer. 

His 120 made three-pointers rank fifth in the league and he is the league's only player with more than 120 dunks and layups and 90 threes. 

It is one thing to have made a lot of threes but another to actually be an efficient shooter – the Sacramento Kings' Buddy Hield has made 20 more three-pointers than LaVine but has hoisted up 94 more attempts – and LaVine has refined his shooting touch and is deadly from beyond the arc. 

He is hitting 43.8 per cent of his three-point attempts from the wing and his 53.8 per cent shooting from the corner ranks sixth in the league among the 103 players with at least 30 attempts.   

Overall, LaVine is shooting 43.5 per cent on three-pointers, an increase of 0.55 per cent from the perimeter from last season – the eighth-largest improvement in the NBA among players with at least 150 three-point attempts this season and last. 

The mid-range shot is somewhat of a lost art in the current game with the added weight given to a shot from a few feet further back beyond the arc, but it still has a place and if a shooter can connect from mid-range with regularity he becomes all the more threatening to score. 

LaVine has found his touch from mid-range, making 44.6 per cent of those shots this season after hitting at a 31.9 per cent clip last season. That increase of 12.7 per cent is the sixth-largest in the NBA among 73 shooters who have attempted at least 50 mid-range shots this season and last. 

Shooters shoot, and LaVine is thriving. His effective field goal percentage of 61.5 ranks second in the NBA among all guards. 

His all-round offensive game is one of the most complete in the league, and opposing defences are tasked with game planning against him, giving him similar treatment as they would give Curry or James, as he is a threat to score from anywhere on the court. 

Curry and James, however, have won multiple MVPs and titles. LaVine is certainly putting up MVP-type numbers, but the Bulls are not in the championship conversation. 

At the moment, at least. 

Chicago are only two games back of the Boston Celtics for the fourth seed in the Eastern Conference and are viewed as a team on the rise under first-year Bulls coach Billy Donovan. Instead of trading LaVine as was being speculated weeks ago, it is possible Chicago will be buyers at the March 25 trade deadline in their pursuit of a playoff berth. 

And if LaVine continues to excel and Chicago continue to improve over the next few seasons, MVP awards and NBA titles might not be out of the question for LaVine and the Bulls. 

LaVine finished with 39 points as the Bulls advanced to take on the Miami Heat for the right to the eight seed and a playoffs first round series against Eastern Conference top seed Milwaukee Bucks.

The Bulls guard's 30-point second half was the most points he has scored in any half this season, fuelling a fightback after trailing by 19 points.

"What he did going into the third quarter and into the fourth, it would have been very, very difficult for us to have won that game if he had not done that," Donovan said about LaVine.

"His performance was extraordinary. It gave us life and it gave us hope. Then once we got back into it, I think a lot of guys made a lot of different plays.

"But I give him credit, he had that mentality that he's going to do whatever he can do to get us back into the game."

LaVine put his second-half success down to "aggressiveness" and driving to the basket, capitalising on the Raptors trying to double-team DeMar DeRozan, who had 23 points and seven rebounds. DeRozan called LaVine "amazing" and said the Bulls followed his lead.

Meanwhile, the loss ended the Raptors' season, meaning they have missed the playoffs in two of their past three seasons, putting pressure on head coach Nick Nurse to retain his job.

"It was tough," Nurse said reflecting on the 2022-23 season. "I think we had some up and downs. I thought we came out of the gates playing pretty well. Then we had to weather some injuries and we did that and once we got everybody back that got us out of rhythm and took a couple tough losses.

"I've told the guys several times in the last two weeks, I'm proud of them for getting back to .500 when they were six or seven games below .500, because we did coach them hard and work them hard to rebuilding some of the foundational stuff.

"I thought we played well enough to win tonight, it just didn’t go our way."

Nurse lamented his side's 50 per cent free-throw shooting, making 18-of-36, not helped by DeRozan's daughter Diar, who screamed with a shrill every time they had an attempt from the line.

"That's a lot of misses," Nurse said. "We left a lot of points on the board."

DeRozan laughed off his daughter's antics which caught plenty of attention on social media given her persistent nature throughout the game.

"I've just seen it, she went viral," he said. "I kept hearing something during the game and when somebody missed a free-throw I thought 'damn, is that my daughter screaming?' I was just making sure she was alright though."

DeRozan added that Diar would not be able to attend Friday's play-in game on the road against the Heat, instead needing to go back to school.

The loss meant the Bulls have suffered their fifth loss from their past six games, sliding to a 42-31 record and hanging on to fifth spot in the Eastern Conference.

DeRozan had been feeling some tightness in his groin recently, with a modest return of 21 points, four rebounds and two assists in Tuesday's 126-98 loss to the Milwaukee Bucks before sitting out against the Pelicans.

"DeMar knows his body better than anybody else," Bulls head coach Billy Donovan told reporters before Thursday's game.

"I think he felt like, 'Okay, this could get into something else a little bit more significant if I don't take care of this.'

"We just don't want it to turn into something bigger."

Donovan said the Bulls would know more on DeRozan's status on Friday ahead of their next game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Saturday.

Caruso will undergo surgery early next week for a fractured right wrist, having been fouled by Milwaukee's Grayson Allen, who was subsequently ejected.

The former Lakers guard joins Lonzo Ball on the sidelines for the 28-16 Bulls, who have lost five of their past six games.

Caruso's agent Greg Lawrence called Allen's foul, deemed flagrant 2 by the officials, a "cheap shot" given the significant injury it had caused. Bulls head coach Billy Donovan had labelled Allen's act as "dangerous" after the game.

The 27-year-old guard played out the game but admitted his wrist continued to bother him, impacting his shooting.

Facing his old team, LaVine was not at his sharpest and there were post-game suggestions he might be struggling physically.

LaVine, who joined Minnesota in the 2014 draft before moving to the Bulls three years later, managed just 12 points and six assists in almost 37 minutes on court.

Ultimately, it hardly mattered that he fell well short of his season's average of 24.6 points, as the Bulls pulled off a 134-122 win.

They are now 35-21 for the season and will tackle the Oklahoma City Thunder – Donovan's old team – on Saturday.

Coby White scored 22 points, Javonte Green bagged 23 and Nikola Vucevic's 26 points proved important as the Bulls were led by DeMar DeRozan's 35-point game.

It was a fifth successive 30-point game for DeRozan and Donovan saluted his "unbelievable" performance.

After quarters of 27-27, 33-32 and 32-32, the Bulls stretched clear in the fourth, which they took 42-31 to swat away the Timberwolves (29-27).

Asked afterwards about LaVine's condition, Donovan said: "I just think at this time of the year, I don't think anybody's feeling probably great.

"He's had to deal with his knee, he's had to deal with his back. It's a lot right now, and I'm sure he's not quite where he wants to be physically, but I give him a lot of credit, he's going out there and competing and playing and trying to do what he can do to help the team.

"We're going to have to work through this with him a little bit. He's trying to do everything he can to help us."

Donovan said the Bulls would "take his pulse – [see] how's he feeling, what's he going through, what's he experiencing" before finalising plans for Saturday's game.

"Zach's an elite scorer in this league and has been for quite some time," Donovan said, "but if he has a game like that you've got to try to generate good shots.

"It was great to see Javonte and Coby step up and have the offensive nights they had. DeMar's been doing it pretty consistently all year long.

"Zach tried to play the right way. I think the guys are trying to help each other and complement each other, and they're very, very unselfish based on who's going well and who's playing well."

Donovan Mitchell scored 18 of his season-high 37 points in the fourth quarter as the Cavs pulled away for a 144-126 victory at Rocket Mortgage FieldHouse, their 14th in as many games this season.

That result ensured they went one better than the previous team record of 13 successive wins, which they managed on three occasions during the LeBron James era.

They are just the sixth team in NBA history to go 14-0 from the start of a season and the first since 2015-16, when the Golden State Warriors did so en route to the Western Conference title.

After the victory, Mitchell – as well as team-mates Darius Garland and Jarrett Allen – celebrated by dancing with a man in a frog costume, which had gone viral as an impromptu mascot during the team's historic start to the campaign. 

"That was fun," Mitchell said. "It shocked the hell out of me when I saw the frog. It was pretty dope. It was like just a vibe."

"It's Cleveland," Allen said when asked about the frog's arrival. "It's just a vibe in the city, and I hope it doesn't change.

"I've been wanting to dance with that frog since I first saw him!"

After scoring 49 first-quarter points in a blistering start, the Cavs found themselves just five points up at half-time, prompting coach Kenny Atkinson to angrily throw a sandal in the locker room.

"That's what we want," Mitchell said when asked about the incident after the game. "We all prefer that. We hear how good we are. 

"For us, that's how we get better. We haven't lost, but how do you continue to find ways to build habits? It's continuing to coach hard and not let any lapses. That's what you want in a coach."

Cleveland have some way to go to record the best start to a campaign in NBA history, with the Warriors going 24-0 to begin the 2015-16 season.

However, a victory over the Charlotte Hornets on Sunday would make their start the joint-second best in league history, along with the 1948-49 Washington Capitols and the 1993-94 Houston Rockets. 

After sitting out the past three games, the decision has been made for Ball to have arthroscopic surgery on his left knee – reportedly to repair a torn meniscus. 

A statement from the Bulls read: "Following an initial period of rest and targeted intervention, Bulls guard Lonzo Ball will undergo arthroscopic surgery on his left knee and is expected to return in 6-8 weeks." 

Ball is averaging 13 points, 5.1 assists and 5.4 rebounds for the Eastern Conference-leading Bulls this season. 

Chicago were 6-2 in the eight games Ball has missed this campaign, all of which have come since Boxing Day. 

The Bulls ended a four-game losing streak against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Wednesday and take on the Milwaukee Bucks on Friday. 

The Bulls were expected to improve on a promising 2021-22 term this time last year, but they finished 40-42 for the regular season before missing out on the eighth seed in the Eastern Conference.

Chicago were beaten by the Miami Heat in April's play-in tournament, bringing a premature end to an inconsistent campaign in which they never once posted a four-game winning streak.

Their woes were compounded by seeing guard Lonzo Ball sit out the entire season with a knee injury which has now required multiple surgeries. Having last taken to the court in January 2022, Ball will also miss the 2023-24 campaign after being forced to undergo a cartilage transplant.

Despite Ball's absence, Drummond believes Chicago can look forward to a more positive time of things this season, having kept a familiar core intact. 

"It's definitely been one of my better offseasons, I feel like I got a lot done," Drummond told Stats Perform. "I got some good insight into what is expected of me, so that's what I worked on this summer.

"With the Bulls I feel like we have some unfinished business, which is one of the reasons why I ended up coming back here to Chicago, picking up my player option. 

"We started off really good at the beginning of last year, and I feel like we let a lot of things slip, some due to injuries and some due to just not really having any real chemistry yet.

"Losing Lonzo, a lot of our decision-making has been spread out throughout our team, for guys that aren't used to doing it.

"I think with a year under our belts now, we know how each other play and we know each other a little bit better, we will be able to really build that chemistry."

In June, two-time All Star Drummond exercised his $3.36million option to remain with the Bulls, who open their season at home to the Oklahoma City Thunder on Wednesday.

He will again be teaming up with Nikola Vucevic, who signed a three-year, $60m contract extension with Chicago in June, and Drummond is enjoying working with his fellow center.

"The relationship I have with Vuch is unique because he's somebody I've battled against for almost a decade, just playing against this guy year in, year out," Drummond said.

"Then being team-mates with him now and just seeing him on a day-to-day basis, I just really formed a new respect for him, watching how hard he works and how he prepares for each and every game. 

"Being here with him has been a lot of fun. We have two different games, which is why our games work together on the same team. 

"He's more of the outside shooter and I'm more of the brute force down low that gets all the rebounds and does all the dirty work, so our games clash very well."

Vucevic averaged 17.6 points, 11 rebounds and 3.2 assists while playing in all 82 games throughout 2022-23, also shooting 52 per cent from the field, his highest rate since 2014-15.

The Bulls saw two of their games postponed earlier in December after 10 of their players had entered the protocol.

Donovan, who has cold-like symptoms according to ESPN, told the media on Thursday that all the players had been cleared, and they are expected to be available for Sunday's game against the Indiana Pacers.

He will apparently now miss that game, with Bulls assistant Chris Fleming acting as head coach.

The 56-year-old would become the fourth NBA head coach to enter into protocols, joining Sacramento's Alvin Gentry, the Lakers' Frank Vogel, and Indiana's Rick Carlisle.

Ball last played in an NBA game on January 13 last year. The latest update on his situation was that he was failing to make any significant progress, and that this extra procedure – a cartilage transplant – could rule him out until the middle of 2024.

One of the best guard defenders in the league, Ball has a career average of 1.6 steals per game. This season there are only five players – O.G. Anunoby (2.0), Jimmy Butler (1.9), Fred VanVleet (1.7), Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (1.7) and Herbert Jones (1.7) – averaging a higher figure.

Speaking ahead of Monday's game against the Philadelphia 76ers, Donovan said while it is a long road ahead, he is confident in Ball's work ethic and motivation to get back to full strength.

"I know he's going to work really hard [on his rehab]," he said. "[The doctors] felt like the surgery went well.

"I do know that Lonzo, just based on the information he was able to gather from different sets of doctors, [was] making the decision that he felt like this was the best chance to be able to get him back on the court. 

"We all understand that that is going to be an uphill battle for him, but I know he's going to do everything possible in his rehab to get himself back on the court.

"He's certainly got a long road to recovery, a long road to get himself at a place where he can get back on the court and playing again. 

"But I am hopeful with his work ethic and his commitment and drive and just how eager he is to play, that he's gonna exhaust every opportunity to do that."

Ball will not face the Pacers and the guard faces at least 10 days out of action unless he records two negative COVID-19 tests.

The 24-year-old is the 13th man on the Bulls roster to enter the protocols this month.

Three of Chicago's matches have been postponed in December due to the squad being so severely depleted.

Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan have since been given the green light to return, while Ayo Dosunmu, Matt Thomas, Alize Johnson, Devon Dotson, Coby White and Javonte Green have also cleared protocols.

Tony Bradley, Alfonzo McKinnie, coach Billy Donovan and now Ball are absent.

Needing a victory to keep the series alive, the Bulls confirmed LaVine and Caruso will play no part at Fiserv Forum on Wednesday.

All-Star LaVine misses out a day after he entered the NBA's health and safety protocol, having revealed he was feeling unwell before a practice session.

Fellow guard Caruso took a blow to his face in the second quarter of an emphatic 119-95 Game 4 defeat on Sunday and is going through concussion protocols.

LaVine had led the Bulls with 24 points, 13 assists and five rebounds in a loss that left them trailing the series 3-1.

A depleted Chicago were already missing Lonzo Ball (knee) and Matt Thomas (leg).

Phoenix sit way out on top of the Western Conference at 56-14 and have won seven of their last nine games.

However, the Bulls – fifth in the Eastern Conference at 41-28 – will take solace in the fact the Suns have lost three of their last six home games, though Chicago themselves have lost two straight on the road, winning just two of their last nine overall.

If Billy Donovan's team is to have any chance of pulling off a win in Arizona, they will surely be reliant on DeRozan having another big game.

The 32-year-old has a league-high 1,814 points to his name this season, averaging 27.9 points per game. He has scored at least 21 points in each of his last seven outings, and has only once not managed that many in a game in his last 28 (when he scored 18 vs the Miami Heat).

It would be harsh to say the Bulls are a one-man team, but with Zach LaVine – averaging 24.8 points per game – Lonzo Ball and Patrick Williams all reportedly out injured again, DeRozan will be heavily leaned on once more.

The quality is spread right throughout Monty Williams' Suns though, hence their relentless ability to win games this season.

Devin Booker is their point-scoring leader with an average of 25.8 per game (10th best in the league), ably supported by Deandre Ayton (17.0) and five other players all averaging more than 10 per game.

These two teams have already met once this season when the Suns edged an exciting encounter 127-124 in Chicago in February.

The Bulls will be after revenge at Footprint Center but as with any team that comes up against Phoenix, that is very much easier said than done.

PIVOTAL PERFORMERS

Phoenix Suns – Devin Booker

Against the high-scoring Bulls it will be important to respond in kind, which is exactly what Booker did in their February meeting, matching DeRozan by scoring 38 points, which was immensely helpful given the late comeback from Chicago (41-25 in the fourth quarter).

The 25-year-old has scored at least 30 points in four of his last seven games.

Chicago Bulls – Nikola Vucevic

I mean, strictly speaking it should be DeRozan, but we've covered him (which is also what the Suns are likely to try and do) and so the pressure will come onto Vucevic to step up, particularly in LaVine's absence.

The Montenegrin averages 18.0 points per game this season, third-best at the Bulls, and also averages 11.5 rebounds. His total of 699 rebounds is the sixth-highest in the league.

KEY BATTLES – Watch the threes

Only the Miami Heat (37.4 per cent) have better success from beyond the arc than the Bulls (37.3 per cent) in the league this season.

The Suns (36.6 per cent) are sixth best from downtown, though, and so both will need to be careful not to give too much space for three-point attempts, even though the temptation will be there considering how dangerous both are all over the court.

These two teams are the two best in the NBA this season for field goal percentage (Suns - 48.5, Bulls 48.2).

HEAD-TO-HEAD

As mentioned, the Suns beat the Bulls in February, and have actually won the last four meetings between the two. The last Chicago win came in March 2019 (116-101 in Phoenix).

Bulls guard Ball on Wednesday underwent a second arthroscopic surgery on the knee which has seen him sidelined since January.

Ball revealed on Tuesday that he is still unable to run or jump due to the pain in his left knee.

Donovan said Ball's operation "went well", although he was cautious to commit to any timeline on a return to practice or playing.

"You always try to stay optimistic that this will get resolved and he'll be fine," he said.

"But until he gets back and gets into the situations that were causing him pain, to see how he responds in being back in those situations, we'll find out more.

"I don't know how long it will take before he can actually start the rehab process."

Prior to Wednesday's procedure, the Bulls had announced they would re-evaluate Ball's status in four to six weeks, meaning he is unlikely to play in the NBA until November at the earliest, given he has not played since January 14.

"You've also got a player that's been out for nine months," Donovan said. "It's not like in three weeks, the surgery is a success, you can just throw him back out there and play.

"We haven't even gotten to the point if this all goes well with the rhythm, timing, the flow, catching up.

"He's had no competitive play since [January]. So that's a whole other scenario of when he could actually get back."

The Bulls are due to open their NBA campaign against the Miami Heat on October 19.

Ball, who was taken with the second pick overall in the 2017 NBA Draft, moved to the Bulls from the New Orleans Pelicans in August last year, averaging 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists across 35 games in the 2021-22 season.

DeRozan is the third Bulls player to go through the league's COVID-19 protocols, joining team-mates Coby White and Javonte Green.

It remains to be seen how long four-time All-Star DeRozan will be sidelined in Chicago, where the new-look Bulls (16-8) have made a strong start to the season.

DeRozan has fuelled the Bulls, earning Eastern Conference Player of the Week honours having averaged 30.3 points and 5.7 rebounds while shooting 58.7 per cent from the field.

Entering Monday's play, DeRozan – who leads the league in points (633) – has been averaging 26.4 points per game, his best mark since the 2016-17 season.

DeRozan has also averaged 5.3 rebounds and 4.1 assists, while shooting 49.8 per cent from the field and 33.3 per cent from three-point range – the 32-year-old only managed better in 2015-16 (33.8).

Chicago defeated the Eastern Conference-leading Brooklyn Nets 111-107 on Saturday while outscoring their opponents 32-25 in the fourth quarter. The Bulls are averaging 28.3 points in the fourth quarter this season, the most in the NBA, according to Stats Perform.

Against the Nets, Zach LaVine poured in 31 points while DeRozan scored 29. This season, the Bulls are 9-2 when both players score at least 25 points and 7-6 when only one or neither hit that mark.

After draining a last-gasp shot to lead the Bulls to glory over the Indiana Pacers on New Year's Eve, DeRozan was at it again on Saturday by nailing one from the left corner to earn the Bulls a 120-119 triumph over the Washington Wizards to extend their winning streak to seven.

According to Basketball Reference, DeRozan is the first player in NBA history to hit game-winning buzzer-beaters on consecutive days.

The big moment arrived when he took hold of Coby White's pass with a little over three seconds remaining, dribbled into the corner, faked the shot on rookie Corey Kispert, set his feet and drained the shot.

It was the culmination of another fine performance for DeRozan, who had 28 points, nine rebounds and five assists. He is averaging a league-high eight points on 53 per cent shooting in the fourth quarter this season.

"Just to hit a buzzer-beater in general is amazing, especially when you do it on the road," DeRozan said about his moment of glory.

"I don't know if I'm dreaming. If it's real right now.

"It's just an honour to be trusted in the fourth quarter. Whether things are going good or going bad, my team, team-mates always leaned on me to be that calm presence to bring us home.

"I always bring that calm presence as much as I can in the fourth quarter, letting guys understand, as long we got time we got a chance."

With the Brooklyn Nets having lost to the Los Angeles Clippers, the Bulls stand alone atop the Eastern Conference with a 24-10 record.

Their recent streak is even more impressive in the context of a spate of absentees, a situation that should be eased by the return from health and safety protocols for Lonzo Ball and Alfonzo McKinnie against the Orlando Magic on Monday.

The game will also see head coach Billy Donovan eligible to return from the protocols as well, and stand-in coach Chris Fleming is happy to hand back the reins.

"I'm quite relieved I can give this back to coach," Fleming said. "I was very fortunate enough to be able to experience this from the head coaching standpoint and see the guys from a little bit of a different side.

"I told them after that I was thankful for the partnership and how hard they poured themselves into making the situation a good one.

"That's pretty much how their character has been all season. They've been resilient, they've handled other blows and different guys have been out, and they've just kept chugging."

LaVine had a career-high 51 points but it was not enough for the Bulls to avoid a second defeat of the campaign.

Chicago lost 118-102 in Detroit, as they failed to build on their 104-103 defeat of the Toronto Raptors.

The Bulls have made the playoffs just once since the start of the 2017-18 season, and LaVine knows Chicago must expect better.

"It's our third year here together, and we know how this business is," said LaVine, who became the first Bulls player with 50 points and no assists since the legendary Michael Jordan against the Miami Heat in November 1996.

"We all love each other. DeMar [DeRozan] is one of my best friends, and we talk all the time, but we have to figure out how to make this work.

"I wasn't happy with the way I was performing and the way the offense was looking. It's upsetting you have a performance like that and lose. It sucks.

"We don't want this to snowball where we have our backs against the wall. We are working every day. We have to figure it out."

LaVine was a late pick for Saturday's game, having overcome back issues to play.

"You know me, I'm going to play," he added.

Ball, who is averaging 13.0 points, 5.4 rebounds and 5.1 assists this season, has not played since January 14 when he sustained a slight meniscus tear, which required arthroscopic surgery.

The Bulls have been without Alex Caruso in recent weeks too, coinciding with their slide down the Eastern Conference standings to fifth with a 42-29 record.

Donovan said the Bulls would pause Ball's recovery for 10 days, taking him up to April 1, leaving only five regular-season games for him to return prior to the playoffs.

"The feeling was, let's really pull back on what he's doing and let's let him, I don't want to use the word rest because it's not like he's sitting around doing nothing – he'll do strength training and those kind of things – but take a break on the running and trying to ramp him up," Donovan told reporters prior to Monday's 113-99 win over the Toronto Raptors.

He added: "We'll have a better feel of that once they get through this next 10 days. Obviously, it's coming to the end of the season.

"I think that they felt like, OK if he can, over this 10-day period, really get back to the ramp-up period, because he has been out for quite some time, that would enable him to get back into contact relatively soon.

"But we can't even get him into that until he gets over that hump, so I don't want to speculate what may or may not happen after 10 days."