No way to go into break
Skiles embarrassed by effort, Gordon laments erratic play
But judging by their lackluster performance throughout the game, it appeared the Bulls actually started the mini vacation a bit early.
''It was definitely an embarrassing effort and an embarrassing loss,'' Bulls coach Scott Skiles. ''Right from the beginning we knew we didn't have it. Just like [Tuesday] night, we were a step slow. We hung in there for a little while, but they just wore us down and we couldn't get anything going.''
Coupled with Tuesday night's home loss to the Toronto Raptors, the Bulls (29-25) enter the break with back-to-back losses and absolutely no momentum.
''We're not playing very well,'' Skiles said. ''We didn't play very well on the West Coast. We won three games, but we had an opportunity to win more.
''We're not playing like a high-level team. There's no reason to run from that. Anybody watching us can see that.''
Especially the players.
''We're just not doing a good job of capitalizing on other team's mistakes,'' said Bulls guard Ben Gordon, who had a team-high 20 points. ''Until we convert on other teams, not turn the ball over or be a team that doesn't have lapses, we're going to continue to be a team that's inconsistent.''
The Bobcats (19-33) took advantage of the Bulls' shortcomings Wednesday. Forward Gerald Wallace slashed through the ineffective defense for a game-high 32 points, while power forward Emeka Okafor had 15 points, 21 rebounds and six blocks.
The Bulls also did a lousy job of staying with Charlotte sharpshooter Matt Carroll. The former Notre Dame star had 17 points on 6-for-10 shooting.
''Our game plan against them is to get up on them, pressure them, attempt to create turnovers, which we've been very good at,'' Skiles said. ''We want to get out on the open floor, be disruptive to their offense, and we just didn't do those things. We were really soft on the ball.''
The Bulls had a decent start, taking a 29-24 lead at the end of the first quarter behind Gordon's 11 points. But the Bulls managed just 16 points (on 6-for-25 shooting) in the second quarter as Charlotte grabbed a 49-45 halftime lead.
The Bulls continued to sleepwalk through the third quarter, and the Bobcats stretched their advantage to 75-65 entering the fourth quarter. The closest the Bulls could get in the final quarter was eight points as Charlotte pulled away for the comfortable win.
''We didn't play with a lot of energy,'' said forward Luol Deng, who had 19 points and nine rebounds. ''Maybe the [Western road] trip had something to do with it, I don't know. We really tried to find our offense and our defense wasn't where it was supposed to be.
''We just didn't give ourselves a chance to win the game.''
After completing the seven-game trip with a victory at Phoenix on Sunday, the Bulls were hoping to stretch the winning streak to three games entering the break. It seemed like a reasonable possibility with their dominance of the Raptors (15 straight wins before Tuesday) and the Bobcats' struggles.
Instead, the Bulls head into the five-day break with consecutive losses.
''We talked about getting some momentum going into the break,'' guard Kirk Hinrich said. ''It was a chance to get a couple of games and we just couldn't get it going.''
That pretty much has been the theme of the Bulls' season so far: What might have been had they simply taken advantage of opportunities.
''It was a first half of missed opportunities,'' Hinrich said. ''It's easy to think back to all the opportunities we had to win games and really take advantage of our situation. We haven't been able to do that so far.''