Gordon starts in lineup shuffle
Skiles had planned to return Ben Gordon to the starting unit but was forced to make a couple more moves when forward Andres Nocioni was suspended for one game by the NBA office and center Ben Wallace was held out with a sore back.
P.J. Brown, making just his seventh start of the season, took Wallace's place at center, while rookie Tyrus Thomas, who didn't play at all Thursday against the New Jersey Nets, made his first start at forward.
With the Bulls having dropped five of six and Chris Duhon mired in a prolonged shooting slump -- he had made just one three-pointer in his last 25 attempts before Saturday -- Skiles simply felt it was time to make Gordon a starter again.
''He's been so great coming off the bench,'' Skiles said, ''but the downside of that has been that in a lot of these games -- especially recently -- we've been up 12, up 18, playing pretty well, and then all of a sudden it just so happens it goes to eight or six or something right at Ben's time to come into the game. It's always Ben to the rescue.
''Our other guys have to stop thinking that. Ben has proven he can come off the bench or start. We sort of just wait for Ben to save us in these situations. It's a way for me to get him more minutes, and hopefully, the other guys won't be looking over to the bench waiting for him to come in and save the day.''
Gordon began the season as a starter but was moved to the bench after six games when he got off to a slow start.
ELBOW ROOM: Nocioni was suspended for hitting the Nets' Mikki Moore in the head with an elbow Thursday. The play didn't draw much attention during the game, but Skiles had a feeling a suspension might be forthcoming after reviewing the tape of the game.
''I looked at it multiple times [Friday],'' he said. ''I didn't hear anything about the league looking at it until [Friday] night, so I thought maybe they [might] have missed [it]. They didn't.''
While Skiles understood the suspension, he made it clear that he believed the elbow was an accident.
''He just got tangled up with Mikki Moore,'' Skiles said. ''It wasn't premeditated or anything like that, but I can understand why the league is looking at it like that. I don't have a problem with what they did.
''The only thing is I know him and I know he wouldn't intentionally hit someone in the head like that. It was sort of an awkward-looking play.''
BACK ISSUES: Although he was experiencing back problems Thursday, Wallace played through the pain and was on the court for 29:33 against the Nets. He was asked if he should have sat out after the back started bothering him.
''Once you start, you've got to finish the game,'' he said. ''I didn't think it would be that big of a problem. I thought I could probably play tonight, but just talking with the doctors, I'm going to try to do the right thing and look out down the line.
''If I keep going out there banging myself up, it's not going to be good for me or the team.''
The hope is that Wallace will be ready to go when the Bulls host the San Antonio Spurs on Monday.