"They've been fragile," Bulls coach Scott Skiles was saying before
"I guess he was referring to the fans booing, whatever, I don't know," said Skiles also of chants for
"This would be a logical time if that is a problem," said Skiles. "We go right to L.A. (Friday) and even though we're playing the Clippers first the questions (about being traded for Bryant) will probably come three straight days. If we put something together, you can once and for all in your own mind put it behind you."
The Bulls began their first session with perhaps their best overall effort of the season, but it was still another loss, 112-102, to drop the Bulls to 1-6 on the season.
The Bulls were led by
"We had some stretches tonight where we were better," said Skiles. "(But) they made threes (five of seven for higher scorer Leandro Barbosa with 25 points) and Steve (Nash) came in and kind of regained control of the game for them. But at key moments, we fell asleep defensively, we had trouble handling the ball and you just can't do that against a team like this."
The Suns moved to 7-2, though the Bulls had taken their biggest lead of the gamer at 83-81 on a Hinrich jumper with just over eight minutes remaining.
"It's hard to swallow," said Hinrich. "At times we were looking like our old selves, but then we weren't able to finish the game. It's disappointing to fall apart at the end. We got a little bit careless on defense. We made some strides in the right direction. But we started gambling too much. I think we let the significance of the game get to us."
With the Bulls still holding a lead with eight minutes left, Nash finally found open space, hitting Boris Diaw for a jumper, Barbosa for a three and
The big change was
The Nocioni move didn't pay off immediately as the Bulls fell behind 15-6 and it wasn't until Tyrus Thomas replaced Nocioni that the Bulls made a run to pull within one before trailing 26-22 after one quarter. Their shooting remained uneven, but the defense was sharp, particularly against
The Suns looked like they'd run away late in the second quarter as Ben Gordon had difficulty finding Leandro Barbosa, who hit three straight three pointers to give the Suns a 56-41 lead. But Gordon responded with a three and the Bulls trailed by 10 at halftime.
It was good news for the Bulls as Luol Deng, with 21 after three quarters, found more space against the Suns' lax defense and the Bulls rediscovered their second effort game, collecting loose balls and driving hard at the smaller Suns to finish the third quarter on an 11-1 run to even the score at 75 after three.
Led by an energetic effort by Thomas, the Bulls finally went ahead for the first time since the opening seconds 81-79 on a Nocioni three as Thomas drew two fouls on Amare Stoudemire and threw down a flying slam on a pass from Kirk Hinrich. But the Suns inched back ahead after still another Barbosa three to take a 93-87 lead with just under six minutes remaining. The Suns extended that with slick movement, finally, in the next two minutes to grab a 10-point lead as Nash finally began finding his openings.
"We've got to get them going," Skiles said of the Bulls sort of Big Three of Luol Deng, Ben Gordon and Kirk Hinrich. "One way possibily is to give them a little more space to operate (with Nocioni's shooting spreading the floor). The other part is Tyrus has played well with
"If I am in the starting lineup, (it) is not good," said Nocioni. "I think (it means) we lost too many games and the coach needs to change. It is not good. I want to play coming from the bench."
Skiles played rookie Thomas Gardner briefly while rookie
"These guys have done a hell of a job," said Skiles. "It's relatively unprecedented (with your main players three rookies and a sophmore to win 47 games in 2004-05). The next step is always the hardest. We raised the bar to a certain level. We can't now say the bar is too high."
So is there a fear of success, Skiles was asked, as well as failure?
"Of course," Skiles said. "Then you've got to do it every day."
The doctor will see you now.
sasmith@tribune.com