It has been a season full of tumult for the Chicago Bulls. It's only a matter of time before the Bulls embark on a full-blown fire sale, selling off the likes of Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Nikola Vucevic to start anew. However, over the past two weeks or so, the Bulls have noticeably been trying harder on the hardwood. And Bulls guard Ayo Dosunmu seems to be cherishing his team's newfound lease in life as seen in their 124-116 win over the Miami Heat on Thursday night.
Dosunmu had to play a huge role for the Bulls on Thursday against the Heat as Alex Caruso had to exit the contest after just five minutes. To his credit, he was able to deliver. He poured in 24 points to go along with eight rebounds and five assists for his best game of the season, and to top it all off, he sank a dagger three from the left corner that gave the Bulls a 121-111 lead with 29 seconds remaining in the contest.
After sinking the game-sealing triple, Ayo Dosunmu flashed the three fingers celebration towards someone in the stands. And that someone was none other than former Bulls star Joakim Noah, who, according to Dosunmu, was helping out the 23-year old guard all night long against the Heat.
“That's my guy. He's been helping me throughout the whole process from when I was a rookie. I got nothing but love for him. He was talking to me the whole game, giving me little pointers. So that was just showing love to him,” Dosunmu said in his postgame presser, per K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago.
Joakim Noah's love for the Bulls franchise, even though he hasn't played for them since 2016, has never faded. In fact, he openly represents the Bulls, and him helping out Ayo Dosunmu is another way of his to show his affinity for the franchise.
Perhaps getting Noah to work with Dosunmu full-time could help bring out more of these performances from the young Bulls guard. After all, his performance against the Heat is quite the turnaround from his Tony Snell game last Monday.