There's no T in Del Negro, but he's heard whistle before

Vinny Del Negro has been tossed from NBA games before, usually for fighting.

Well, that was in his playing days. Del Negro mentioned a couple of skirmishes involving Gary Payton and Shawn Kemp that resulted in ejections. He also thanked Terry Cummings for coming to his rescue when Kemp had him pinned against the basket support.

Del Negro was thrown out for the first time as a coach on Monday with 58.5 seconds left in the third quarter. He was upset about a blocking foul against Derrick Rose, which was followed closely by a charge on Taj Gibson.

"I wanted to get my point across and I think I did," said Del Negro, who watched the rest of the game from his office. "I've got to do a better job of staying in the game. I thought it was a quick pull, but I was on the court pretty far. I have a lot of confidence in my staff. Kirk (Hinrich) and Derrick know what we want to run and how we're going to run it. Those guys are the quarterbacks on the court anyway."

When Noah was asked about his coach's behavior, he had a line ready.

"Just try to win it for Vinny, man," Noah said with mock intensity. "Kirky said that on the court yesterday and everybody just started laughing. I thought it was pretty funny. 'Come on guys, let's do it for Vinny.' I thought that was pretty funny."

Defense dominates: The Bulls' defense has made a sudden drastic improvement.

During their recent stretch of allowing at least 100 points in 12 straight games - the longest such streak for the franchise since 1986 - the Bulls allowed seven of 12 opponents to shoot better than 50 percent from the field.

In the last three games, against Cleveland, Philadelphia and Houston, the Bulls gave up an average of 88 points and the opposition shot a combined 38.2 percent from the field.

Other than the fact that the Bulls didn't play Dallas or Utah over the weekend, coach Vinny Del Negro didn't have a solid explanation.

"I wish I had a good answer for you," he said. "Maybe the new guys are getting more accustomed to what we're doing. Having Jo (Noah) out there gives us a little more energy, gives Brad (Miller) a few less minutes.

"I thought Derrick (Rose) and Kirk (Hinrich) did a great job controlling (Houston's) penetration, which helped. When we can control the guard penetration, it takes the pressure off our bigs, where we're a little thin right now."

Bull horns: Brad Miller and Taj Gibson sat out Tuesday's practice, mostly to get some extra rest. Gibson has been bothered by persistent plantar fasciitis in his left foot, but wasn't limping when he drained a 30-foot jumper on his way off the court. - Thanks to a busy schedule, Tuesday was the first regular practice for the Bulls in eight days.