Troy Brown Jr. has the most efficient game of his career vs. Pistons

In a dominant win over the Detroit Pistons on Jan. 11 at home at the United Center, the Chicago Bulls flexed their muscles in a spot where they needed to bounce back. Heading into a tough portion of the January schedule later this week, the Bulls needed a win over the Pistons to build up confidence following the letdown they had over the weekend in a double-digit loss to the Dallas Mavericks on the road.

Second-year head coach Billy Donovan and the Bulls really got a nice lift from the entire rotation in this whopping 46-point win over the Pistons. Three players, in particular, stood out coming off the bench purely in terms of their overall efficiency in this game.

In just over seven minutes played off the bench, sharpshooting guard Matt Thomas came up with a true shooting percentage better than 1.000. He scored in the double figures in just under 7.5 minutes played off the bench, which is insane.

Newly signed forward Alfonzo McKinnie also registered one of his best box plus/minus ratings of the season at 12.9.

But maybe the best performance off the bench in this game came from shooting guard/small forward Troy Brown Jr., who registered one of the best outings of his career. Brown played a key role in the Bulls’ defensive success in this game, holding the Pistons under 90 points after they got off to a hot start in the first quarter.

While it wasn’t necessarily a flashy offensive night for Brown, his defensive efforts were well noted. Coming off the bench in a game where he played in less than 25 minutes, Brown still managed to register seven points, seven rebounds, five assists, and a whopping career-high six steals.

This game saw Brown come up with one of the most efficient nights of his career to date. And he also registered the best box plus/minus of any game in his career where he played in more than five minutes.

Moreover, it was his best game score of the season thus far.

There are other games in Brown’s career where he’s come up with a better game score. But the box plus/minus was the best of his career with any sort of relevant playing time.

Most of the heavy lifting for Brown’s advanced metrics in this game came courtesy of the six steals he came up with. But you can’t just discount the fact that he did come up with six steals in less than 25 minutes played off the bench.

Troy Brown Jr. comes up with a career defensive performance for the Chicago Bulls in a win over the Pistons

The fact that he also came up with seven rebounds and five assists just shows the true impact he made for the Bulls on each end of the floor. He was tremendous on both ends of the floor against the Pistons. And you have to consider that the Bulls just aren’t winning this game by 46 points unless you have players coming off the bench that put up some insane production like Brown did here.

The night that Brown just had also put him in rare company in Bulls and NBA history. There are fewer than 10 players in NBA history that had a game where they came off the bench with at least seven rebounds, six steals, and five assists. The only other player in Bulls franchise history to accomplish such a feat was guard Ennis Whatley back during the 1983-84 season.

If Brown can even come near this type of defensive performance in a few other games for the rest of the season, the impact he could make in terms of helping this team get on the right side of the win column would be amazing. It’s not realistic to expect him to come up with six steals off the bench each and every night.

But if Brown can become the type of defender and rebounder that can average say five rebounds and one or two seals off the bench, he would be an invaluable part of the second or third unit.

Brown’s awesome night for the Bulls against the Pistons helped them to win 10 of their last 11 games, pushing them to a record of 27-11 on the season. Next up for the Bulls is a meeting with the Brooklyn Nets on the back end of back-to-back games at home on Jan. 12.