Things can’t get any worse for John Collins these days.
The Atlanta Hawks appeared to get the stop they needed to force overtime in their game against the Chicago Bulls on Wednesday night. Chicago inbounded the ball to DeMar DeRozan, their master in the clutch, with the game tied and four seconds remaining, but he airballed a baseline jumper as the clock ticked down to zero. The ball dropped straight to Atlanta forward John Collins to secure the rebound and send the game into overtime. Only one problem: the ball slipped right through Collins’ hands, and Ayo Dosumnu was there to scoop it up for the game-winning putback.
The Bulls beat the Hawks, 110-108, on Dosunmu’s buzzer-beater that capped an extremely fun back-and-forth fourth quarter. Collins had a rough night overall, finishing with only four points in the loss. What’s worse than giving up the game-winning rebound to your opponet? Having the victorious dogpile happen right on top of you. The Bulls jumped on top of Dosunmu after his shot, and Collins was caught on the bottom. Watch the clip here:
Dosunmu fell over right on top of Collins, where he was mobbed by his teammates to celebrate the buzzer-beater. Collins was on the bottom of the pile knowing he could have prevented all of this simply by grabbing an easy rebound.
This picture is hilarious. Collins’ limbs are hanging out under Dosunmu as the Bulls pile on top of him.
Credit Dosunmu for putting himself in position to make the play. He originally inbounded the ball, and made a hard cut to the basket to try to grab a loose ball. He was rewarded for his effort by Collins’ whiff.
These are rough times for Collins. He’s been in trade rumors for multiple seasons at this point, and is now losing minutes to rookie wing A.J. Griffin. Collins is a talented player so Atlanta doesn’t want to give him away for nothing, but he doesn’t seem to fit with the future direction of the team. At this point, a trade can’t come soon enough.
Remember: the Hawks beat the Bulls on a wild buzzer-beater earlier this month when Griffin somehow converted an alley-oop layup with 0.5 seconds on the clock. Now Chicago stole its own last second victory. Things seemed so bad for the Bulls only a few days ago with the report of Zach LaVine’s unhappiness in Chicago. A couple wins in a row can make everything feel so much better.
