DeMar DeRozan owns up to crucial mistakes in crunch-time against the New Orleans Pelicans

As the unquestioned star of the Chicago Bulls, DeMar DeRozan knows a lot is on his shoulders every game. He's also been quick to own up to his mistakes, as he did after a crucial turnover in crunchtime that led to a loss to the New Orleans Pelicans on Wednesday night.

DeRozan's late-game blunders

DeRozan was his usual brilliant self in the fourth quarter, exchanging buckets with New Orleans' star Brandon Ingram. But with the game on the line and the Pelicans up by two, the Bulls star made a crucial mistake.

DeRozan drove to the basket and missed a floater over the outstretched arms of Pelicans' stud Zion Williamson. After Williamson split his free throws to push the lead to three, 112-109, with 19.4 seconds to go, DeRozan fumbled the inbound pass, essentially sealing the deal for New Orleans.

DeMar DeRozan on his late turnover in which he fumbled the ball out of bounds as Bulls trailed by 3: "That was on me. I'll take it. It wasn't nobody else's fault. It was on me."
— Cody Westerlund (@CodyWesterlund) November 10, 2022

The five-time All-Star believed he got fouled on his last drive to the basket but refused to blame the non-call. Despite his poor clutch performance, DeRozan had a great outing, scoring 33 points on 14-of-26 shooting.

DeMar DeRozan on #Bulls losing another close one: "It was just a couple key mental mistakes just alone, my part. It’s just frustrating when we don’t give ourselves the chance to see what happens by making mistakes. This one is going to eat away at me all night, for sure.”
— Cody Westerlund (@CodyWesterlund) November 10, 2022

DeRozan's fourth technical of the season

Frustrations may sometimes boil over for DeRozan on the court, but he's shown great restraint this season. That was until Wednesday night when he picked up his fourth technical foul of the season. Bulls head coach Billy Donovan came to his star's defense, saying there are certain situations where DeRozan is fouled, and the referees don't see it.

"My feeling is there are fouls that need to be called that aren't being called," Donovan said.

The 5x All-Star constantly ranks up there for most free-throw attempts, thanks to his deceptive pump fakes and ability to take contact and finish at the rim. But Donovan said there are situations when refs fail to blow their whistles despite the contact.

"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 added.