Inconsistent Bulls can't fill the void
The Bulls haven't been good enough this season to win many games playing at full strength.
So it should come as no surprise that the Bulls lost to another bad team at the United Center with leading scorers Ben Gordon (sprained right wrist) and Luol Deng (left Achilles' tendinitis) sidelined for the second straight game.
The Charlotte Bobcats were just 2-13 on the road before Friday and 0-3 against the Bulls, but they rolled to a 90-77 victory over the depleted home squad.
The list of teams that have beaten the Bulls in Chicago this season includes Charlotte, New York, Philadelphia and the Los Angeles Clippers -- four teams that are a combined 48 games below .500.
The injuries are a reasonable excuse, but the Bulls beat Indiana two days earlier with the same group of players.
"I know we're short-handed," coach Jim Boylan said. "We're missing two of our main scorers. But we should still be able to step up and fill those voids with the guys we have.
"These are NBA players, and when you're called upon to perform, that's what you're supposed to do. This is a league of performance, and that's what you need to do night in and night out. We go from one game to another where we look like two different teams."
The Bulls shot 37 percent from the field Friday. Andres Nocioni hit 3 of 12 shots in the first half, then rallied to finish with a team-high 25 points. Kirk Hinrich couldn't match Wednesday's career-high 38-point performance against Indiana. He had 14 points and 8 assists against the Bobcats.
The Bulls (17-25) were on their heels all night after going scoreless for a 6½-minute stretch of the first half and falling behind by 11 points.
They rallied from 13 down in the third quarter to close within 68-64 with 10:42 remaining after a fastbreak lay-in by Hinrich.
But while the Bulls struggled to make baskets, Charlotte (17-26) hit 7 of its first 9 shots in the fourth quarter and opened an 83-68 lead with 5:45 left.
Boylan was left wondering why his team seems incapable of stringing together strong performances.
"When you play as inconsistently as we have during the season, it becomes difficult to understand why we have problems motivating ourselves," Boylan said.
Following the game, a few Bulls disagreed with their coach's assessment.
"I don't think (motivation) is a problem with us coming into the game," said Chris Duhon, who played Friday after missing two games with a knee bruise. "I think when things don't go our way early, it kind of deflates us. When it continues to happen, then we just fall back into some type of shell. That's different for us. We used to fight through struggles all the time."
Added Hinrich: "I think it's an accumulation of frustration. For whatever reason, it's kind of gotten the better of us right now. We were short-handed tonight. But at the same time, we're a professional team and we've got to go out there and just play better."
The Bulls did have success with something they hadn't tried before. Six-foot-7 guard Thabo Sefolosha posted up against Charlotte's Matt Carroll in the third quarter and scored 7 points on four trips down the floor.
Center Emeka Okafor had 21 points and 16 rebounds for the Bobcats, while Gerald Wallace also scored 21.