Billy Donovan doesn't want the Chicago Bulls to be overly dependent on DeMar DeRozan

Coming off a 46-point outing against the Boston Celtics on Friday night, DeMar DeRozan had an uncharacteristic "quiet" performance in Sunday's game against the Toronto Raptors. Still, head coach Billy Donovan refused to use that as an excuse for Chicago's second straight loss.

Too DeRozan-centric?

In a 113-104 loss on the road, DeRozan had 20 points on 7-for-9 from the field. The Bulls forward was held to only six free throw attempts -- heading into the game he was averaging 9.1 FTAs -- as the Raptors improved to 6-4 despite playing without their leading scorer Pascal Siakam.

The Chicago Bulls were without Zach LaVine, who missed yesterday's game due to knee injury management. The Raptors' head coach Nick Nurse capitalized on Chicago's lack of players who can create scoring opportunities by trapping DeRozan on every possession. As a result, the 33-year-old finished with season-high 5 turnovers, and the Bulls couldn't make up for his subpar performance.

"This is what I was talking about from an identity standpoint and stylistically how we need to play," Donovan said after the game. "We’ve still got to be able to generate good shots. We can’t be a team that says, ‘OK, if DeMar isn’t getting 35, it’s going to be hard for us to win.’"

"I thought the bench when they came in to start the fourth did a really good job when we got up. I thought DeMar played within himself and still scored 20 points. We had some opportunities. We had some looks and they didn’t go down. If we could have taken better care of the ball and given ourselves a few more looks at the basket, it could have been different. But give them credit, they are the ones that turned us over,” the Bulls head coach added.

Donovan's respect for DeRozan

Nurse's defensive schemes resulted in DeRozan tying his season-low in FGAs (9) and only attempting six free throws after going to the line 22 times against the Boston Celtics.

But despite his low number of touches, the 5x All-Star never settled for bad shots.

“The way DeMar played in terms of trusting the pass, and also (not) saying, ‘OK, I’m going to shoot out of it, over it, but I’m going to get a shot up.’ He always tries to play the right way. I have great respect for him. When he does that he gives the rest of our team a lot of confidence," Donovan said.

The Raptors will look to limit DeRozan's offensive output in a rematch against the Bulls tonight. But if LaVine is back for Chicago, it'll be much harder for Nurse's team to replicate yesterday's performance on defense.