Craig Mitchelldyer/AP
The 10 pounds of added muscle have come in handy.
Matas Buzelis will enter his 17th game of the regular season on Monday with 17 deflections, he’s been in on eight loose balls, and has drawn a charge. Not the statistical categories that scream All-Star in Year 2, but instead those grimy numbers that Bulls coach Billy Donovan demands of his roster. Numbers that are the difference between winning and losing players.
That was the jump Donovan wanted to see from his second-year forward. An understanding and acceptance of playing the game with more physicality than Buzelis did as a rookie.