When Ben Gordon tossed an alley-oop to rookie Tyrus Thomas and he slammed it down for a reverse dunk in a lane of traffic, a sold out United Center crowd was certain they were in the wrong place.
Aside from the bizarre green uniforms the Bulls donned to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day, Thomas and Ben Wallace played completely out of character to help key a 95-87 win over the Boston Celtics, further convincing fans and even coach Scott Skiles they were at the wrong game Tuesday night.
“Well the green uniforms were Thomas’ fault,” Skiles said. “Rookies are responsible for doing our laundry and frankly, he sucks at it. He must have left a green sock or something in with our whites and it dyed everything. They looked like green nuggets out there.
“But when [Ben] Gordon and Captain Kirk [Hinrich] were ineffective, and Wallace and Thomas stepped up to control the game? That’s when I was confused as to what team I was watching out there. But can you blame me? Those guys normally suck ass.”
Wallace had 19 points and 16 rebounds, while Thomas scored a career-high and team-leading 23 points and nine rebounds-many of his points coming off alley-oops from Gordon and Wallace, and nasty, open lane dunks.
After the game, Thomas said he felt confident he would be able continue his clutch play throughout the rest of the season.
“It feels good to actually back up my trash talk for a change,” Thomas said. “I’m going to make a conscious effort to not suck for the rest of the season.”
Number of the night: 6
Bulls wins in their last 7 games. If this were a movie, this would be a great place for a montage where the team wins a bunch of games in a row set to Baltimora’s “Tarzan Boy.” Yeah, that’s the stuff Disney movies are made of.
