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It was a day of historic significance and for cementing a legacy. It was the day of the second inauguration of Barack Obama as president of the United States. But that’s not whose legacy we’re talking about. No. it’s another guy who has been known to play some basketball.
There’s always room for Luvabulls photos — even if it’s not from Monday’s game.
And rather than an official inauguration, it was more of an indoctrination for Chicago Bulls forward Jimmy Butler. He had the daunting duty of guarding Los Angeles Lakers star Kobe Bryant. Starting in place of the injured Luol Deng, Butler helped limit Bryant to 16 points on 7-of-22 shooting, including 0-for-6 on three-points, as the Bulls prevailed 95-83 Monday (Jan. 21) at the United Center.
“Thibs does a great job,” Bryant said of Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau. “Everytime he faces me he does a great job. Most of the looks I had tonight were tough shots.”
Bryant went 0-for-7 from the field in the decisive fourth quarter when he and Butler played the entire 12 minutes.
“He had an off night,” said Butler, who had 10 points and eight rebounds. “He missed shots he normally makes. That’s what Kobe is: a real tough matchup. … I just tried to make everything hard for him. It’s all about getting into his face. But it wasn’t just me defending him. It was four other guys out there. If I was bat, Joakim [Noah] or Booz [Carlos Boozer] or somebody else was always there. We defended him as a team. But he missed a lot of shots: pull-ups, opeb threes; he makes thos. When you see Kobe on the highlights, he knocks those down. He just didn’t make too many shots tonight.”
Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich had a season-high 22 points. He was 9-of-11 from the field, including 3-of-4 three-pointers. Reserve guard Marco Belinelli had 15 points, including 3-of-3 on three-point attempts. Center Joakim Noah had a season-high six blocked shots.
Steve Nash led the Lakers with 18 points. Pau Gasol was not in the starting lineup for L.A. It was his first game as a reserve. He had 15 points and a team-high 12 rebounds.
“I’m not excited about it,” Gasol said of being a bench player. “But right now I’m more worried about us as a team.”
Yes, Jan. 21, 2013, was the second inauguration of Barack Obama. The event even had some sports connections. Of course, one of them had to be fairly embarrassing to ABC’s George Stephanapoulos, who thought he was looking at actor Morgan Freeman. In reality, it was Boston Celtics legend Bill Russell.
This doesn’t have much to do with sports, but some of us are big James Taylor fans:
And then there was Beyonce. Her husband Jay-Z is a part-owner of the Brooklyn Nets:
Some of these videos are about as close as some of us come to actually exercising (and please excuse the split infinitive):
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