Relaxing Too Much

As frustrating as the Bulls have been to watch this season, the New York Knicks haven't even had a chance to be a fringe playoff team.  So with the Bulls as healthy as could be, it seemed Wednesday's meeting at the United Center would give them a good shot at hanging onto that final playoff spot in the East.  Instead, they got outscored by 26 over the second and third quarters by playing lackadaisical defense and making dumb decisions on offense.  Despite a fourth-quarter comeback, they still lost 115-107, ending New York's nine-game losing streak in Chicago and putting Detroit a full game in front in the playoff race.

Kristaps Porzingis, a Rookie of the Year contender, was the game's top player in achieving a double-double of 29 points and 10 rebounds.  Robin Lopez had a more modest one of 11 and 13.  Carmelo Anthony, showing what the Bulls missed by not landing him two offseasons ago, scored 24, including four 3-pointers.  Jose Calderon and Aaron Afflalo combined for 23 points and 15 assists.

Nikola Mirotic scored a career-high 35 and had nine buckets from 3-point land to tie Ben Gordon's Bulls record.  Derrick Rose chipped in 21 while Taj Gibson and Aaron Brooks each had 10.  Jimmy Butler could only add seven on 3-of-11 shooting, putting him at 36.4 percent from the field in the six games he's played since returning from a knee injury.  While he says he feels fine, he's not happy with his recent efforts.

It's gotten to a point where Fred Hoiberg is at a loss to explain his team.  How could a team that didn't turn the ball over once in the first half suddenly go down by 23 in the fourth quarter?  How does anyone get outrebounded by 29 over any two-game stretch?  Then again, there's nothing that shouldn't be considered if Northern Iowa can blow a double-digit lead in the final minute.

I briefly flipped over to ESPN's postgame coverage after watching the local broacast and Jalen Rose posed a question on everyone's mind:  do the Bulls really want to make the playoffs?  It's sad that our discussions about this team have come to those topics, but it's unavoidable.  When you let a team in disarray like the Knicks shoot whatever they want whenever they want, you're asking people to stop believing.  Every time you think their apparent disinterest in playing defense has reached a fever pitch, they find some way to outdo it and that's not the sign of a playoff team.

Chicago native Michael Wilbon is often known to be brutal to teams from his hometown, especially when it comes to Jay Cutler, but he might not be exaggerating when he calls the Bulls the biggest disappointment in the NBA this year.  We've seen a lot of reasons to believe it, including two of the three games I've attended this year.  And the worst part is we've seen no indication from the organizational heads to win or else that Tom Thibodeau got last year.  I'm still waiting for a real reason to believe in this team and not what Gar Forman and John Paxson preached to us when Hoiberg was hired and did almost nothing to alter the roster last summer.

This was the first of a home-and-home with the Knicks as the second game will be held Thursday at Madison Square Garden.  The last time the Bulls were there, they were just coming off that quadruple-overtime loss I had a chance to see.  They were too winded to be competitive that night.  Hopefully, they won't use the excuse of being let down by tonight to play well this time.