Random thoughts (or reasonable facsimiles thereof) while wondering how many overtimes it takes in an NBA game before they decide to determine the winner via a free-throw contest: Yes, the Chicago Bulls lost to the visiting New Orleans Pelicans 131-128 in triple overtime.
* Jrue Holiday. That’s another term for Chanukah, no? No. That the Pelicans guard. Chanukah is a Jewish holiday. Holiday, the Pelican, scored the winning points with 2.6 seconds left. He darted from beyond halfcourt to take a pass and drive to the basket for a layup and a foul by Taj Gibson. Holiday was guarded in the backcourt by Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich, who played 53 minutes (second to Luol Deng’s 56 among the Bulls). No doubt Bulls fans can second-guess not putting in rookie Tony Snell to shadow Holiday. Bears coach Marc Trestman better have a good explanation for all this.
* Speaking of Trestman, he wouldn’t have been the object of outrage if Robbie Gould’s field-goal attempt that would have provided an overtime victory against the Minnesota Vikings on Sunday, had been slightly more to the left and been good. A coach is only as good as his players’ performance. That’s true in the NBA, NFL, Canadian Football League or anywhere else.
* Still speaking of Trestman (as no doubt some folks still are doing), his critics can second-guess all they want. It is not going to change the past. They might want to focus on the immediate future, Meaning the Dallas Cowboys. And if readers of this space think this mention is given merely to justify running a photo of a Dallas Cowboy cheerleader, a reminder that as the person who runs this site, I really don’t have to go to justify much (if anything).
* Speaking of Chanukah (well, we were a couple of paragraphs ago), you have to love a celebration that last eight nights — and also has enough different spellings of the festival of lights to have one for each night.
* On the bright side for the Bulls, they don’t have practice Tuesday and don’t have a game until 8:30 p.m. Thursday against the Miami Heat at the United Center. The late start is for national television. TNT can only hope Bulls guard Derrick Rose, who recently underwent surgery on his right knee, will be on the bench. Which is as close to a LeBron James-Rose matchup as anyone is going to see for a while.
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