Blazers PG Damian Lillard’s slam dunk with his club already up by 6 and 1.9 seconds left against Chicago last night raised the ire of the Bulls’ guardians of hoops etiquette, Joakim Noah and Taj Gibson. The Oregonian’s Joe Freeman shifts thru the hurt feelings :
“I just told him he can’t do that,” Gibson said. “He didn’t say anything. He was making a scene out of nothing. He made the layup and me and Joakim just addressed it, like, ‘In the future, you have to be smarter. A lot of teams aren’t going to let you do that.’”
“When I caught the ball, I didn’t know what to do honestly,” Lillard said. “I was just like, ‘Man, I’m here by myself, I don’t know what to do.’ I didn’t mean no disrespect to them … next time, I just know to dribble the ball out.”
It’s ironic that Noah was one of the Bulls most upset by Lillard’s late-game dunk, considering he drew scrutiny Nov. 6 for heaving a late three-pointer against the Orlando Magic to try to earn Chicago fans a free Big Mac. The Bulls had a 99-93 victory sewed up when Noah launched a three with 3.9 seconds left in an effort to get his team to 100 points and earn fans a McDonald’s coupon similar to the Blazers’ chalupa promotion.
“You don’t do that and I think he knows better now,” Aldridge said. “I don’t think he’ll do it going forward.”