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Illinois basketball great Ayo Dosunmu scored a career-high 29 points on Monday to lead the Chicago Bulls to a 136-126 win at the Atlanta Hawks. Dosunmu shot 12-for-18 from the field, including a career five 3-point attempts on seven attempts, to pace Chicago (26-28), which gained a game of separation on the Hawks (24-30) in the Eastern Conference standings.

Dosunmu, a consensus All-American at Illinois in 2021, also had seven assists to just two turnovers to go along with a steal and a block. Dosunmu tied for a team-best plus-13 in the plus/minus, along with Demar DeRozan, who also had 29 points.
Dosunmu, the 38th overall pick (second round) of the 2021 NBA Draft, also helped hold Hawks star Trae Young to 19 points on 3-for-14 shooting.
Why it matters: Dosunmu continues to make the most of his increased playing time with Zach LaVine sidelined for the season with a knee injury. Since Jan. 13, Dosunmu has scored double figures in 13 of 14 games, averaging 15.9 points on 59.2% shooting (52.5% shooting from three) to go along with 3.4 assists, 1.0 steals and 0.8 blocks.

Dosunmu said after the game on NBC Sports Chicago: “It’s just the work I put in over the summer, the work I put in with my dad and my brother, the work I put in here with Coach Peter Patton and all the great guys who helped me with my shot, and my teammates showing confidence in me.”

Bulls head coach Billy Donovan told reporters after the game: “I thought Ayo’s pace and tempo in the second quarter really got us back in the game quickly. He was downhill. I think part of the reason he’s shot the ball better is, one, he’s invested a lot of time in it. But the other thing is that if you watch him, he’s always ready to shoot. He’s always got his feet and his hands, and he’s ready to make the next play or decision. I think he’s put a lot of time into it. And whether it was him knocking down threes or getting to the rim, he did a lot of good things.”

What it means: After a sophomore slump last season, Dosunmu is ascending in his third season in the NBA. He is averaging a career-best 9.7 points and shooting a career-best 39.8% from three. While the Bulls franchise has been frustratingly stagnant behind an aging and injury-prone core, Dosunmu and fellow young guard Coby White (career-best 19.3 points) have been bright spots who give some long-term excitement. And the contracts Dosunmu (3 years, $21 million) and White (3 years, $36 million) signed during the offseason look like absolute steals for the Bulls.

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