With 5:06 to play in the 4th quarter of Monday night’s game in New Orleans, the Bulls led the Pelicans by 17. Somehow, they didn’t win the game.
All star big man DeMarcus Cousins went off down the stretch, leading the Pelicans in their comeback victory with 44 points, 24 rebounds, and 10 assists. Chicago native Anthony Davis kicked in 34 points of his own.
Despite the crushing loss, there were plenty of positive takeaways for the Bulls in this one. First off, it was a great…
— ⓂarcusD (@_MarcusD2_) January 23, 2018
Outside of the end result, other positives from tonight were the performances turned in by center Robin Lopez and point guard Jerian Grant, which likely caught the eye of some NBA scouts. Lopez’ name has been rumored to be on the trade block for over a month now, and recent reports indicate the Bulls are listening to offers on Grant as well.
Both scored 22 points in the loss on a combined 16-23 shooting. Grant has seen an increase in playing time the last two games with the absence of Kris Dunn, and he is stepping up not only in the scoring department, but in the floor general department as well. He added a season high 13 assists to his 22 points.
Lopez, who has been labeled as anything but a scorer over his journeyman career, is averaging 19.3 points over the last three games.
The big man had another strong night at the office leading the team with 22 points in a double OT loss to New Orleans pic.twitter.com/Li3r23tzV6
— Chicago Bulls (@chicagobulls) January 23, 2018
With just over two weeks to go until the trade deadline, the Bulls could use as many of these performances from this duo as possible. Recency bias is very real in sports, and it would be swell if the Bulls could get a team to overvalue either one of these players in a trade because of a few outlying performances in the coming weeks.
