<div class='quotetop'>QUOTE </div><div class='quotemain'>Practice just ended at the Berto Center and Ben Wallace already has left town because of a death in his family. He won't be at Thursday's final game before the All-Star break, a 7 p.m. tipoff against the Heat. Thabo Sefolosha also skipped practice with a sore groin, although interim coach Jim Boylan said he'd play. He also will start alongside Chris Duhon again as Boylan sticks to his plan to make players earn their spots back. Boylan said Kirk Hinrich most likely would come off the bench for the second straight game against the Heat after recently missing three games with bruised ribs.</div> http://blogs.chicagosports.chicagotribune....handed-aga.html Too bad for Ben Wallace. I can't think of anything to write for the "make [injured] players earn their spots back" rule. It goes against decades of reasonable conventional wisdom that players never lose their starting spots because of injury. And if they do, it's because their backups outplayed them and that certainly didn't happen here. I can only assume it's a nod in Deng and Gordon's direction and Kirk is paying for it.
Not to be morbid, but I wonder who died? I remember just over a year ago when Zach Randolph was given bereavement leave by the Blazers for the death of his girlfriend's cousin and he was spotted at a strip club shortly thereafter. IIRC, he didn't pay his bill to boot! I read this stuff too much, I'm getting a little too jaded.
On the injury thing, it also comes shortly after Pax gave an interview (lost the link) saying you had to trust guys' judgement about their injuries. I'd forgotten about that. Just... wow. Why are the Bulls wearing their road red unis at home?
Wallace's sister-in-law died. This game was extremely fun to watch without Wallace. I wish Paxson would just send him home and say "We'll let you know if we need your contract to make a trade."
Tyrus was pretty impressive tonight. I hate the lack of discipline in his game, but he made several nice plays. He had a couple of rebounds/catches where if had just hung on to the ball, he would have scored easy baskets. Hinrich was great, too. The announcers continually commented on the Bulls' length and size compared to the Heat. It was nice.
Tyrus is never average; he's either spectacular or craptacular. Kirk was playing like the injured bench player he is.
