Pau Gasol is a two-time NBA champion while Jimmy Butler is having the best season of his career so far. But the alley-oop the two Chicago Bulls tried was more oops.
Sometimes the best-laid plans go haywire.
Chicago Bulls forward Pau Gasol decided he wanted to try to play point guard Thursday night as the Bulls played the New York Knicks at the United Center.
Out near the 3-point line, Gasol pivoted and launched an alley-oop as Jimmy Butler did a backdoor cut to shake loose of defender Travis Wear.
But Gasol’s alley had way too much oops.
Butler caught the ball in the general vicinity of the rim and Amar’e Stoudemire—never to be confused with the poster child for the NBA’s All-Defensive team—easily knocked the ball away.
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Gasol’s pass was hideous—a flat line drive that only flirted with the idea of staying high enough for Butler to do something with it at the rim.
It wasn’t too costly, as the Bulls put away the short-handed Knicks 103-97.
New York played without Carmelo Anthony, J.R. Smith, Cleanthony Early and Iman Shumpert—rolling out a starting five of Wear, Stoudemire, Jose Calderon, Tim Hardaway Jr. and Cole Aldrich.
Chicago didn’t have Derrick Rose, but got 35 points from Butler and 20 from Gasol to get the victory.
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