QUOTE
He probed the recesses of his mind for any logical explanation of what had just happened to his team, and Kirk Hinrich actually let loose a chuckle.
The sheer lunacy of Tuesday night's fourth quarter--in which the Bulls hit just three shots, blew a nine-point lead and ended up with a stunning 97-93 loss to Orlando at the United Center--was simply too ridiculous to contemplate.
"We just got stagnant," Hinrich said. "We just stopped moving the ball and the hole shrunk up on us."
It shrunk like a new cotton sock on a five-hour dryer cycle. Herewith, the gory fourth-quarter totals:
Three field goals on 21 attempts, for a sub-Arctic 14.3 shooting percentage. Aside from Andres Nocioni, who capped his career-high 26 points with two fourth-quarter buckets, the rest of the Bulls shot 1 of 19.
That was complemented by a 3-for-8 showing at the free-throw line, all leading to 11 points, a season low for the fourth quarter.
The even gorier consequences: The Bulls (31-40) flubbed a chance to inch closer to idle Philadelphia in the chase for the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff spot, instead dropping two games behind the 76ers while middling-but-improving Orlando (28-43) won its fourth straight and just its eighth road game of the year.
"I'll take a look at it, but it didn't look like we stepped up with confidence to shoot the ball," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "It looked like we became very hesitant, and then you step up there and miss free throws, and it starts snowballing, and we got into trouble, obviously."
Really, the Bulls were in trouble long before that. Their defense chased Orlando all night, particularly guard Jameer Nelson (24 points), allowing the Magic to shoot 50 percent from the floor through three quarters.
The Bulls were crisp enough to mask their deficiencies to that point, firing at a 51.6 percent clip through three quarters. But then the offense vacated the premises.
Orlando's Hedo Turkoglu drained a baseline jumper with two minutes to go for the Magic's first lead since the first minute of the game--but the die was cast well before that.
"Problem is, when you're not getting buckets, you have to get stops," Bulls guard Ben Gordon said. "That's something we didn't do."
If the Bulls wind up just a notch or two below that eighth playoff spot at season's end, these could be 12 of the more prickly minutes in their memories. They were up double digits in the second half against a team that had been just goofy away from Orlando all year. Instead, they dropped to 7-14 in contests decided by four points or fewer."That has been the story with us all year," Bulls guard Chris Duhon said. "We've had games we've been in control of and somehow we've found a way to let them slip away."
The sheer lunacy of Tuesday night's fourth quarter--in which the Bulls hit just three shots, blew a nine-point lead and ended up with a stunning 97-93 loss to Orlando at the United Center--was simply too ridiculous to contemplate.
"We just got stagnant," Hinrich said. "We just stopped moving the ball and the hole shrunk up on us."
It shrunk like a new cotton sock on a five-hour dryer cycle. Herewith, the gory fourth-quarter totals:
Three field goals on 21 attempts, for a sub-Arctic 14.3 shooting percentage. Aside from Andres Nocioni, who capped his career-high 26 points with two fourth-quarter buckets, the rest of the Bulls shot 1 of 19.
That was complemented by a 3-for-8 showing at the free-throw line, all leading to 11 points, a season low for the fourth quarter.
The even gorier consequences: The Bulls (31-40) flubbed a chance to inch closer to idle Philadelphia in the chase for the Eastern Conference's eighth and final playoff spot, instead dropping two games behind the 76ers while middling-but-improving Orlando (28-43) won its fourth straight and just its eighth road game of the year.
"I'll take a look at it, but it didn't look like we stepped up with confidence to shoot the ball," Bulls coach Scott Skiles said. "It looked like we became very hesitant, and then you step up there and miss free throws, and it starts snowballing, and we got into trouble, obviously."
Really, the Bulls were in trouble long before that. Their defense chased Orlando all night, particularly guard Jameer Nelson (24 points), allowing the Magic to shoot 50 percent from the floor through three quarters.
The Bulls were crisp enough to mask their deficiencies to that point, firing at a 51.6 percent clip through three quarters. But then the offense vacated the premises.
Orlando's Hedo Turkoglu drained a baseline jumper with two minutes to go for the Magic's first lead since the first minute of the game--but the die was cast well before that.
"Problem is, when you're not getting buckets, you have to get stops," Bulls guard Ben Gordon said. "That's something we didn't do."
If the Bulls wind up just a notch or two below that eighth playoff spot at season's end, these could be 12 of the more prickly minutes in their memories. They were up double digits in the second half against a team that had been just goofy away from Orlando all year. Instead, they dropped to 7-14 in contests decided by four points or fewer."That has been the story with us all year," Bulls guard Chris Duhon said. "We've had games we've been in control of and somehow we've found a way to let them slip away."