Bulls' big men not up to challenge vs. Cavs

CLEVELAND - The Bulls know their front line is young and needs plenty of help, but who knew they were this bad?

Cleveland announced before Friday's game that center Zydrunas Ilgauskas is out for two weeks with an ankle injury, which should have been good news for the visitors.

But in his place, offensively challenged Ben Wallace scored a season-high 13 points and floppy-haired Brazilian Anderson Varejao shattered his previous career high of 18 points by soaring over and around the Bulls for 26.

For the second time in three days, the Bulls were completely overmatched against one of the NBA's best teams.

The final score was 117-92, but the outcome was never in doubt after the first quarter.

The Bulls were also blown out at home by Orlando on Wednesday and are now 0-9 against the East's top four teams.

"For whatever reason, we're just not accepting that challenge night in and night out to control the other team's big guys," Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro said. "We've just got to try to get back on track with some wins at home."

Frustration boiled over late in the third quarter when Bulls teammates Joakim Noah and Andres Nocioni got into a prolonged shouting match during a timeout. The problem apparently started when Nocioni missed a defensive assignment and was corrected by Noah.

"Frustration," Nocioni said in his broken English. "We no win, we no play good. Just got to stop happening, and that's it. We talk a lot about the effort and the defense, but when we come here in the gym, we never do it. Simple as that."

Noah was willing to address the altercation that was obviously enhanced by the Bulls' pitiful play.

"When you're playing a basketball game and losing by 20 points, you're frustrated," Noah said. "I don't have any problems with Noc. It's just the way it is. Heat of the moment, things are said."

Cavs star LeBron James didn't do much scoring, but he toyed with the Bulls throughout. He picked up his 21st career triple-double, then tacked on a pair of 3-point fadeaways before leaving the floor for good with 16 points, 11 assists and 10 rebounds.

Cleveland (27-5) opened the second half with an 11-0 run and took a 25-point lead, but the Bulls' effort was lacking right from the start.

Derrick Rose picked up 2 fouls in the first 1:21 of the game, while Ben Gordon (22 points) and Larry Hughes went a combined 0-for-8 from the field in the opening quarter.

The Bulls' big men, meanwhile, discovered a state of consciousness below sleepwalking.

Wallace, Varejao and rookie J.J. Hickson combined to score 19 points for the Cavs in the first quarter. Between them, their season scoring average for entire games is 14.8.

Granted, the Bulls are missing three potential starters due to injury - Drew Gooden, Luol Deng and Kirk Hinrich - but they should have enough healthy bodies to show more of a pulse than this.

"We just don't have that extra burst we had before," Del Negro said. "We had relied so much on our bench during those resilient moments. Now those bench guys, some of them are starting, and the minutes are different and things like that. Our rhythm on both ends isn't great right now.

"Hopefully we get our captains back, Drew and Lu, and Kirk hopefully in the next couple of weeks. I'm expecting it to make a good difference."

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