Bulls at Hornets
The Chicago Bulls earned their first win of the season behind a career night from Cameron Payne and a pair of clutch free throws from Zach LaVine on Wednesday. The Bulls will try to make it two straight over the same opponent when they hit the road to visit the Charlotte Hornets in the conclusion of the home-and-home set.
Payne drew a rare start in place of point guard Kris Dunn (knee) on Wednesday and went 7-of-11 from 3-point range en route to 21 points while adding five rebounds and four assists. "Zach kept finding me and it kept going in," Payne told reporters. "So, I had to keep being aggressive. Zach found me on that first one, found me again, went in again. So, all they could say was keep shooting and they kept going to me." The Hornets should be happy to be heading home after a four-game road trip that didn't end quite as well as it started. Charlotte dominated the Orlando Magic to begin the trip and earned a one-point win at Miami before falling at Toronto and Chicago to drop below .500 at 2-3.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, WGN (Chicago), FS Southeast (Charlotte)
ABOUT THE BULLS (1-3): LaVine became the first Chicago player since Michael Jordan to score at least 30 points in each of the team's first four games when he went off for 32 on Wednesday. "I’ve been good," LaVine told reporters. "But the thing (Wednesday) was my teammates allowed me to get to the spots I had to. The whole team played well off each other and we made the right plays at the right time. We don’t have a big margin of error, and I think we played almost a complete game." LaVine is shooting 57.1 percent from the floor and added solid work at the defensive end on Wednesday by holding Charlotte star Kemba Walker to 5-of-14.
ABOUT THE HORNETS (2-3): Charlotte allowed the Raptors to shoot 57.5 percent in Monday's 127-106 loss and let the Bulls connect at 48.1 percent from the floor, and first-year coach James Borrego was not pleased with the effort. "Defense is where the game starts for us," Borrego told reporters after Wednesday's setback. "We just did not defend well enough in the first half. That was unacceptable defense. Especially when shots aren’t falling, you have to rely on your defense. We just didn’t get it done on the defensive end, especially in the first half." Walker ended up with 23 points at Chicago and is averaging 31.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Hornets PG Tony Parker reached double figures for the first time this season with 10 points on Wednesday - four more than his total from the three previous games.
2. Bulls PF Bobby Portis left Wednesday's game with a right knee injury and will miss four to six weeks after an MRI exam displayed a sprained MCL..
3. Dunn is expected to miss 4-6 weeks after suffering an MCL sprain in his season debut at Dallas on Monday.