Bulls fall by 32, now 1-7 in last eight games

The sad thing - wait a minute, make that one of the saddest things - about the Bulls' wire-to-wire blowout loss to Toronto on Saturday was that coach Vinny Del Negro rested his starters during the fourth quarter in Cleveland on Friday to save energy for the second leg of the back-to-back.

But the Bulls brought nothing to their home court, falling behind by 28 points three minutes into the second quarter and never making much of a dent in the deficit the rest of the way.

Considering the Raptors came into the game with an 8-13 record and giving up 114.5 points per game on the road this season, Saturday's 110-78 loss at the United Center should be regarded as a thorough embarrassment.

But the Bulls have been through this before. They've dropped five of their last six home games to Toronto, with 3 of those losses by at least 20 points.

Remember the home loss to end last season, which dropped the Bulls from the sixth playoff seed to the seventh? And the 101-71 thrashing on Nov. 10, 2007 is certainly a contender for the official "beginning of the end of the Scott Skiles' coaching era."

Following Saturday's loss, Del Negro wasn't ready to concede anything.

"You're going to have days like this, but I love the challenge; I love the competition," Del Negro said. "It makes me sick to perform like that. But are you going to give up or are you going to go and fight? I'm a fighter, so I'm going to battle and do whatever I can to help and the guys have to do the same."

Inside the Bulls' locker room, the mood was a mix of dour and bewildered.

"I feel bad," Derrick Rose said. "I feel like a Monday when you have to go back to school or something like that. We've just got to get on the same page - play defense, run, rebound the ball as a team."

The Bulls (7-11) have now dropped seven of their last eight games and only one margin of defeat has been less than 14 points.

"It's really frustrating when you know you worked so hard and you get up and come to the game and it's like you don't show up at work," said Luol Deng. "Until we commit defensively, I don't think our offense will come around."

Center Joakim Noah wasn't around to talk about the loss. He was ejected at the 7:19 mark of the third quarter for getting his second technical foul and left the arena quickly.

Del Negro often uses the line, "no excuses," but Saturday he mentioned a valid one - the injuries that have robbed the team's depth. Kirk Hinrich missed his fifth game with a sprained left thumb and Tyrus Thomas remains sidelined with a broken left arm.

"Jannero Pargo's out there limping," he said. "I've got Lindsey (Hunter) in a bucket of ice right now trying to heal his foot; something's wrong with his foot. We've got some rookies out there trying to find their way a little bit. We don't have the bodies, especially when Joakim gets thrown out. Aaron Gray is just coming back (from a stress fracture).

"There's not a lot there to get going, that's why the starters have such a responsibility to keep us in it. (Then) get something off the bench somewhere that can give us some type of rest without us dropping a level. With our guys out right now, it's difficult."

Chris Bosh led the Toronto onslaught with 25 points and 12 rebounds. Pargo and John Salmons led the Bulls with 13 points each.

<p class="factboxtext12col"><b>Mike McGraw's game tracker</b></p> <p class="factboxtext12col">Cavaliers 101, Bulls 87</p> <p class="factboxtext12col">The third worst: The Bulls led this game 54-52 four minutes into the third quarter, then suddenly went ice cold. While the visitors missed 12 of their next 13 shots, LeBron James and company sprinted to a 21-4 run and that was that. James finished with 23 points, while the Cavs built a 46-20 edge in points in the paint.</p> <p class="factboxtext12col">Jaws of defeat: Midway through the fourth quarter, things got slightly interesting when James and Joakim Noah started jawing with each other while James shot a free throw and Noah sat on the Bulls bench. Noah said later he was frustrated by the loss and James dancing along the Cleveland sideline once the game was in hand. James got a technical for approaching Noah, but things calmed down quickly.</p> <p class="factboxtext12col">Home sweet home: The Bulls are back at the United Center to face Toronto tonight, kicking off a stretch where they'll play 14 of 19 games at home. Through Friday, the Bulls had played just 6 home games, tied with Phoenix for the league low.</p>