Deng Steps it Up Overseas

Chicago Bulls small forward Luol Deng is at it again. Once again he stepped it up for Great Britain, scoring 21 points in their first European qualifying campaign over Slovakia in Birmingham. Deng’s position as lead-scorer for Great Britain follows in his own footsteps – last week he hit the high 24 points in their game against Ireland. It took Deng a little while to get his game on this week as he struggled with his shooting in the beginning of the game. Deng missed his first five scoring attempts but well made up for his misses later in the game. According to press notes, Deng said of the international team, “It’s going to take a while to gel offensively, but defensively we’re doing a good job.” Well, until the gel sets at least fans are comforted knowing that Deng has the ability to pull more than his own weight.

Deng is getting a lot of praise from his international teammates – according to press notes center Andy Bettes said of Deng, “He’s going to get pressure and publicity because of how good a player he is. He handles it will, and the team performance was good – we didn’t give them an easy shot all night.” Great Britain will spend the next week training before they head to Almere for their second qualifying game against Holland. With Slovakia taken care of, Great Britain only has three more teams to beat – the Netherlands, Belarus and Albania. If Deng keeps his numbers up, these wins should be an easy feat.

If you won’t have the opportunity to see Deng play abroad, see him play with the Bulls this season when you get your Chicago Bulls tickets at StubHub.com.