The Bulls' monumental meltdown
INDIANAPOLIS -- Just in case anyone was getting too optimistic about the Bulls' recovery from a 2-10 start, they sent a loud message via Wednesday's box score.
During a 117-102 loss to the Indiana Pacers at an alarmingly empty Conseco Fieldhouse, the Bulls managed to turn a 16-point lead into an 11-point deficit during the course of 14 minutes.
They stood and watched as the Pacers shot 70.3 percent from the field in the middle two quarters and buried 3-point shots from every corner of the court.
"You'll never win a game like that and it showed tonight," Bulls forward Joe Smith said. "We can't allow that to happen again."
Then again, nothing tells a team it's playing bad defense quite like having Kareem Rush and Marquis Daniels combining to score 40 points and hit 17 of 23 shots. Heading into the contest, the two Indiana subs were averaging a collective 12 points per game.
"I feel like defensively, it was almost like we had a meltdown," guard Kirk Hinrich said. "For a stretch there, our defense was good."
The Bulls (7-13) were as sharp as they've been all year while building a 38-22 lead early in the second quarter. They were sprinting upcourt, moving the ball and getting plenty of open looks.
Maybe they got too comfortable with a feeling that everything was OK again. Their second-round-of-the-playoffs form quickly disappeared.
Indiana seemed to flip a switch and turned the flow in the opposite direction. The Bulls led by 14 when Pacers coach Jim O'Brien got a technical foul for arguing that a Tyrus Thomas block should have been goaltending.
That helped spark a 13-1 run and sent the home team into halftime with a 53-52 advantage. Thomas and Indiana center Troy Murphy were ejected late in the second quarter after a brief scuffle.
The Pacers (11-11) turned up the defense and took away most of the Bulls' easy shots, then began raining jumpers while the Bulls reverted to panic mode on offense.
After missing its first shot of the third quarter, Indiana knocked down 8 in a row, including 4 from 3-point range. The Bulls' last lead of 58-56 was quickly erased by a 15-2 Pacers run.
Overall in the third quarter, Indiana buried 15 of 21 shots, 6-for-9 on 3-pointers and outscored the Bulls 40-25.
"You've got to give them credit for knocking them down," coach Scott Skiles said. "But we were a step slow in getting out to them."
"It seemed like we were slow-footed tonight," added Luol Deng. "Our defense just wasn't there."
Ben Gordon led the Bulls with 18 points. But after hitting 6 of 11 shots in the first quarter, he went 1-for-10 from the field the rest of the way. Smith had 16 points and Deng 15.
Besides Indiana's two super subs, point guard Jamaal Tinsley and power forward Jermaine O'Neal each scored 18. Tinsley was playing his second game since having two of his cars sprayed with bullets outside an Indianapolis hotel last weekend.
"The last couple games now, we've played better offensively, and our defense has been not awful but close to it," Skiles said.