[Johnson] Lonzo Ball on taking heavеs: “It’s a chance to make the shot. I really don’t play the percentages. I don’t mind taking the fullcourt hеavе. If it’s another missed 3-point shot, I really don’t carе. If it goes in, great. If not, I’ll shoot it again.”

Source

Great attitude from Lonzo

Near the end of the third quarter Monday night, Chicago Bulls guard Lonzo Ball took an inbounds pass, jumped and fired a full-length, overhead desperation heave at the far basket.L

The 76-foot shot had---what?---an .001 percent chance of finding bottom. But Ball shot it anyway.

“It’s a chance to make the shot,” Ball said following the Bulls’ decimation of the Los Angeles Lakers, which, following a similar demolishing of the Los Angeles Clippers, capped a clean sweep of Staples Center tenants. “I really don’t play the percentages. I don’t mind taking the fullcourt heave. If it’s another missed 3-point shot, I really don’t care. If it goes in, great. If not, I’ll shoot it again.”

The play may seem inconsequential, a blip in the grand scheme of things. But it’s really not. It speaks to a larger theme from these 10-4 Bulls.

Not every player takes that shot. Many hold the ball so as not to harm their shooting percentage.

Ball, like the teammates that surround him, isn’t worried about individual statistics. He’s trying to win the game. And by taking that shot, he’s improving his team’s chance to do so---.001 percent chance or not.

“I think it’s the character that everybody brings to this team,” Ball said when asked why a team with so many new faces is playing such cohesive, winning basketball. “The whole team plays for one another. Even out there playing small ball, we got guys 6-7, 6-8 playing center. I’m playing a little power forward. AC (Alex Caruso) is playing power forward. It’s just the will and the fight that we have as a collective unit.