Noah not taking losing with good humor
After producing his best effort in a Bulls victory this season, Joakim Noah lingered in the locker room, borrowed some wrist accessories from teammate Joe Smith for the pending celebration and spoke about his primary motivation in basketball.
"Losing (stinks). Losing is depressing," Noah said. "It really feels so good to win one. It feels like it's been a long time."
Those sound like words spoken by a player who went 64-11 and won a pair of national championships at Florida the last two seasons.
"I don't go into the city if we lose, ever," he added. "There's nothing worse than losing. Losing is horrible. It's a horrible feeling."
At this point, Smith began to mock Noah from a few feet away, but the Bulls rookie wasn't ready to stop.
"I don't know how to explain it, but to me there's no better feeling than being in a locker room and coming out of the shower knowing you put it all out there," he said. "You're tired, but you're satisfied from winning. You know the fans are happy, everybody's happy, because you got it done."
Noah probably earned some regular playing time with his hustle in the second quarter. While playing all 12 minutes, the 6-foot-11 center piled up 7 rebounds, 2 assists, 2 steals and a block.
"He was guarding (Atlanta's) Josh Smith, and it seemed like Josh thought he could take him anytime he wanted to," coach Scott Skiles said. "Joakim kept his feet in front of him, deflected some balls. So I don't know if he picked us up. But he definitely had great energy."
Noah put up better numbers (16 points, 8 rebounds) in a loss at Denver last week, but that was done mostly in garbage time of a 21-point loss.
Gray gets promise: It didn't happen Tuesday, but Scott Skiles vowed to give rookie center Aaron Gray more playing time.
"We may start playing Aaron a little bit more, just to take a look at his size and see if he can score a little bit around the basket," Skiles said. "He's not going to be a guy who commands double-teams or anything. But he's got a nice jump hook, keeps the ball high, plays like a big man."
Bull horns: The Bulls had a gaping 24-11 edge over Atlanta in offensive rebounds on Tuesday and their 60 overall rebounds tied the NBA season high. … With three days off before hosting Charlotte, the Bulls did not practice Wednesday. … Ben Wallace didn't wear a headband last weekend in New York and Toronto, but he brought it back for the Atlanta win. Asked for an explanation, Wallace said there was none. He's just glad to have the choice whether to wear one or not this season.