Chicago Bulls: 2 studs, 1 dud from resounding win over the Hornets

Chicago Bulls studs from resounding win over the Hornets: Troy Brown Jr.

I wanted to give the nod to one of the more underrated Bulls players coming off the bench in this game. At the exact time that Donovan and the Bulls needed a reserve player to step up in the wake of more bad injury news this week, this team got a solid effort out of forward Troy Brown Jr. in nearly 30 minutes played off the bench.

A lot of the numbers that Brown put up in this game wouldn’t necessarily jump off the screen at you. But he was certainly effective and efficient on both ends of the floor for the Bulls in this win over the Hornets. This is the type of two-way effort the Bulls were hoping for out of Brown when they acquired him from the Washington Wizards at the trade deadline last season.

While taking on a tough assignment defending LaMelo for most of his minutes on the floor, Brown surpassed expectations. Ball certainly had a solid night for himself with 33 points and eight rebounds on nearly 50 percent shooting from the field and beyond the arc. But Brown was pretty solid when defending him.

Brown turned the ball over on LaMelo twice in this game. Half of the turnovers Ball had on this night were forced by Brown.

And Brown was a spark offensively when the Bulls needed it to close out this game. He hit two important three-pointers down the stretch from the corner. Brown shot 2-of-3 from beyond the arc on this night and 3-of-6 from the field. He also came up with four rebounds (two of which came on the offensive glass), four assists, two steals, and no turnovers.

The overall impact Brown had on this game was evident with his +17 on the night.