The Long and Winding Road Trip
When you take a look at it, despite all the ups and downs of this season, the Bulls have not cashed it in. You have Gordon, Deng and Hinrich out with injuries and yet the Bulls to go Golden State and put up 114 points in that victory...their 3rd highest offensive output of the season. That shows you that the players reached deep within themselves to pull off that upset victory. Chris Duhon is playing on a sore knee, Joe Smith continued his consistent play and Thabo Sefolosha brought a lot of energy on the defensive end.
The Bulls put up two great efforts on back-to-back nights in Portland and Oakland without their 3 best players.
I think we are looking at a team that has not given up and is determined to get better.
Comments
In reference to the “dashed” half-circle in the free throw lane:
Prior to the “possession arrow” where turnovers were decided by the alternating possession rule, jump balls were used to decide possession and the “dashed” half-circle delineated a full circle similar to the full circle at mid-court, thereby providing a boundary for the 2 opposing players vying for the tip and the remaining 8 who must stand outside the circle. In other words, jump ball situations were similar to hockey in that they took place closest to the area where possession decisions had to be determined by a jump ball.
In short, it is the jump circle area no longer used because of the alternating possessions rule now in effect in all of basketball, save for the opening tip of the game (and other infrequent, if not obscure, rulings such as the one in the game tonight where two players from opposing teams jumped into the lane too soon during a free throw.)
Now, Johnny, why are there 20 minute halves in college and 12 minute quarters in pro ball???
Posted by: Eddie Butters | February 9, 2008 9:41 PM
During Saturday night's Bulls/Jazz broadcast, a fan asked a question about the purpose of the dashed half-circle in front of the free throw line. To my surprise, my all-time favorite basketball announcers Wayne Larivee and Red Kerr had no idea what it was for. Red stated that the line had no purpose - I believe this is incorrect. In the rare event that a jump ball occurs near the basket, the dashed line forms half of a jump ball circle. The other half of the circle is behind the free throw line. If I'm not mistaken, there are three places on a basketball court where a jump ball may be held - at half court, and at either free throw line, depending on where the ball was tied up.
Posted by: Eric Hibbeler | February 9, 2008 9:50 PM
The broken line on the circle is there for symmetry and measurement purposes. The bottom of the hashed line is 13 ft. from the baseline. In a blueprint, a broken or hashed line can indicate the edge of a surface that is underneath or "invisible". Since only the top half of the circle serves a purpose the hashed section adds symetry and is used as a measuring point when painting the floor the rest of the floor. There is an actual geometric formula to painting a floor. A student can be given certain points on the floor to make the floor perfectly measured at all of the hash marks, baelines, circle radius' ect. The same goes for a shuffle board and even a hockey rink. Math geeks love this stuff!!...We used to make shuffle board and basket ball courts and used geometry formulas to make the courts for the Park District and for private tennis clubs ect...Did you know that the exact height of a tennis net, back in the day of wooden rackets was one length of the racket and then you put another racket side ways on the top of the other racket and that was the perfect height.Hope this helps!
Posted by: Trax | February 9, 2008 10:04 PM
To Wayne, The dotted half circle goes all the way back to
Jonnie's playing days. Jump balls deep in either half court were jumped
off in those 2 circles. Thus you could not cheat and get into the
circle.
Posted by: chuck gorsch | February 11, 2008 3:08 PM