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It wasn’t quite clear why the Houston Rockets-Chicago Bulls game would be an attraction fit for a national audience on Christmas night. And that was before the game even began. Earlier national TV matchups on Christmas 2012 were Boston-Brooklyn, New York-Los Angeles Lakers and OKlahoma City-Miami.
Brazhal and her Luvabulls teammates had a much better game than did the Bulls.
A casual observer of the NBA could understand why those games would be telecast coast to coast. The Bulls and Rockets? Not so much. Bulls star guard Derrick Rose had offseason surgery and remains rehabbing. The NBA and its network partners knew that before selecting the game at the United Center.
Judging by the result (a 120-97 Rockets victory), maybe the NBA had the game on TV to end viewing parties early or something. Not even TV personality Jenny McCarthy presenting the game ball or presidential advisor David Axelrod watching from his midcourt seats could help their hometown heroes.
As far as highlights go?
Well, there was the Christmas spectacular halftime show featuring the Luvabulls.
The Luvabulls rookies performed like veterans for the team’s Christmas spectacular.
The game itself?
Well, there was Omer Asik scoring 20 points and grabbing a game-high 18 rebounds. For the Rockets. He signed with them as a free agent over the summer with the Bulls opting not to re-sign him for what appears a contract far richer than his tenure with the team indicated he was worth.
“Having him on the floor is a game-changer,” Rockets guard Jeremy Lin said of Asik, who focused on the team’s success — rather than his own — in his first game in Chicago since exiting to Houston. “He is an incredible help and individual defender. He’s not getting to play heavy minutes and showing what he can do. He has great hands that can also finish at the basket.
“He is a very large human being and tough to stop. My first week of training camp, I saw and knew he had potential. People his size can’t usually do what he does with his passing and catching the ball. He has great hands.”
That last sentence would come as a surprise to Bulls fans who last season would have sworn his hands were a liability rather than an asset.
“Omer is a big-time player in the middle,” Rockets coach Kevin McHale said. “Tonight he was blocking shots, getting rebounds and outletting the ball for us. He’s got a bid body and set wide picks for us. This was a very good game for him.”
And not for his former team, which suffered its second consecutive blowout loss.
We knew they were offensively powerful.” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said of the Rockets. “We had a bad fourth quarter in New York, we had a bad performance in Atlanta, and we followed it up today. THings can change very quickly in this league, If you are not right and don’t have an edge, you are not going to win without playing without the right amount of intensity That part is on me.”
The Rockets outrebounded the Bulls 45-31 and outscored them in the middle two periods 67-46. James Harden led Houston — which had all five starters in double figures — with 26 points. Nate Robinson came off the bench to lead the Bulls with 27 points.
“We’re not going out there trying to lose,” Robinson said. “Guys come in and try to give it their all. Some nights it ends up like this. The whole time they were in attack mode. … Harden, he’s one of the best offensive guards. He’s one of them guys, like Kobe and LeBron, Melo, KD. And they got [Chandler] Parsons [23 points, including 4-of-5 three-pointers] ]over there and Lin.
“It’s back to the drawing board and back to school for us to do our homework. Atlanta straight up kicked our butts. Tonight coach emphasized coming out and attacking, keep them on their heels. We did the total opposite.”
Sitting through the Bulls-Rockets contest to be in this postgame photo is someone’s idea of work.
Well, as previously noted, there was the Luvabulls halftime performance, which was high quality as usual.
Postgame interviews, plus more Luvabulls action
Whenever I think maybe I have the best job in the world (or close to it), I reflect on what some others get to call work. Among those folks if Brian B. Hayes. He is a photographer (not that I have the requisite skills to use a camera for much more than a paper weight) who has his share of assignments calling for attractive females to be in the picture.
A couple examples of the models with whom he works are these two with Yohana and Michelle in SNI calendar test shoots:
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