So far, so bad for Bulls in 97-91 loss
The Bulls are not only playing poorly right now, it looks as though they've forgotten how to win.
Given every opportunity to pull away from the Los Angeles Clippers in the fourth quarter Tuesday night, the Bulls tossed up nothing but bricks.
The Clippers finished the game on a 12-2 run and dropped the hapless, winless Bulls to 0-4 on the season with a 97-91 victory at the United Center. The Bulls are 2-13 against the Clippers since the 2000-01 season.
While the clock ticked down on the latest loss, a subdued sellout crowd wasn't sure whether to dash toward the parking lots or launch another pro-Kobe Bryant chant.
"I'm not much of a panic guy," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "Earlier in my life when I had my own personal difficulties, I grew up quite a bit and learned not to panic.
"I'm not panicked at all. We'll try to figure out why we're playing the way we are and why, when the game is on the line, we're not able to step up and make big plays."
As bad as it looks for the Bulls, they can take some comfort in the fact that they started 0-9 in 2004-05 and still finished with the third-best record in the Eastern Conference.
"I believe we're still a confident team," guard Kirk Hinrich added. "We're not giving up on this by any means. It's a bad start. We're disappointed. We wish we got off to a better start. But at this point we're just trying to look to the future."
The story of the first half was Clippers shooting guard Cuttino Mobley (33 points) going a perfect 10-for-10 from the field. The 10-year veteran performed most of his marksmanship from long range, carrying the Clippers (3-0) to a 13-point lead midway through the second quarter.
The Bulls managed to slow him down. Mobley didn't collect his first field goal of the second half until there was 4:29 left in the fourth quarter, but he still helped decide the outcome.
With the score tied at 89-89, the Bulls ran to double-team Mobley and gave up an open 3-pointer by Corey Maggette (18 points) that put the visitors ahead for good with 2:11 remaining.
On the Clippers' next possession, Mobley knocked down a 14-foot fallaway over Hinrich to make it 94-89 after former Bull Tim Thomas saved his own errant shot in the corner.
"I told the refs in the beginning of the game that I'm going back to my old aggressive self," Mobley said.
Overall, the Bulls' defense was excellent in the second half. They allowed 40 points and forced the Clippers to shoot 33.3 percent. The Bulls lost because they shot 35.7 percent overall and couldn't find the basket down the stretch.
After Joe Smith's free throws put the Bulls ahead 76-75 on the first possession of the fourth quarter, the Bulls kept the lead for more than nine minutes. The lead peaked at 89-85 with 4:07 remaining after Ben Gordon knocked down a 3-pointer, but the Bulls missed their next 7 shots as the Clippers stormed ahead with a 10-0 run.
"We're continuously driving it into other team's big people and just jumping into them and flailing and losing the ball," Skiles said. "I don't know if we're expecting foul calls or what."
Luol Deng led the Bulls with 22 points, followed by Hinrich with 18. The Clippers are playing without all-star forward Elton Brand because of a torn Achilles.