Pau! Wow!! Gasol Scores 46 in Bulls’ Victory

Sunday smorgasbord: The Chicago Bulls ended their two-game losing streak with an improbable victory Saturday night at the United Center. Well, not totally improbable. After all, the opponent was the Milwaukee Bucks. What was improbable was the performance of Bulls forward Pau Gasol, who had a career-high 46 points. And that’s in a 14-year career. Hence the improbability and a testimony to his ability.

There’s always room around here for Crystal Hefner.

* Speaking of the 95-87 victory, Bulls fans shouldn’t be concerned that guard Derrick Rose sat out the game because of a sore left knee, should they? That’s about the extent of the discomfort that the team is letting fans and media deal with — with varying degrees of discomfort. Then again, NBA info in regard to injuries certainly is better than the NHL’s. The NHL’s version of Rose’s status likely would be listed with a lower-body injury. So there’s that.

* Speaking of Gasol, who also had a game-high 18 rebounds, he went 17-of-30 from the field. The entire team was 35-for 88. Although the statistical-analysis department at ElliottHarris.com was asleep by the time the Bulls game ended, your mathematically challenged correspondent is fairly certain those numbers mean Gasol’s teammates went 18-for-58. Which is 31 percent. Which is not good. But good enough to beat a team that is not good.

Video below of Crystal Hefner.

* Speaking of Rose, sitting out a game (or two or three or more) is not necessarily a bad thing. The problem is that only with the benefit of hindsight will anyone be able to say Rose and the Bulls handled the situation in a way that benefited (editor’s note: I prefer “benefitted” but spell-check does not) him and the organization.

* For all you who believe Jimmy Butler is going to receive a max contract when he becomes a free agent, he did have 10 assists vs. the Bucks. He also had eight rebounds. He also shot 2-of-9 from the field in scoring nine points. Not exactly superstar stats last time anyone checked.

* Tony Snell made his first start of season. He had 12 as a rookie last season. Snell had six rebounds against the Bucks. “I thought Tony gave us really good minutes defensively,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau told media after the game. Which is one way to look at things. Snell was 1-for-7 from the field, including 0-for-4 on three-point attempts. On the positive side, Snell did play 32 minutes in place of injured Mike Dunleavy. And the best way to develop Snell is to give him more than a handful of minutes every so often. And the more players Thibodeau can feel confident about using, the less concern there should be about whether Rose will return to star status any time soon.

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