The Bulls aren't throwing in the towel just yet. Before the Milwaukee Bucks' convincing victory Wednesday, coach Scott Skiles said the result would not make or break morale.
"This group is not easily deflated," Skiles said. "They tend to bounce back. I'm pretty confident no matter what happens [Wednesday], we're going to play hard over the weekend."
The Bulls play host to Miami on Saturday and play the Wizards in Washington on Sunday.
Nevertheless, the game against the Bucks was significant on many levels.
"We're either 1 1/2 or 3 1/2 back after the game, so there's that two-game swing there," Skiles said. "Also, we either win the season tiebreaker or we're still tied and then it goes to the conference record. And today, they would have a better conference record than us."
Skiles said Chris Duhon showed improvement but still wasn't ready to play Wednesday. Duhon has been experiencing lower back pain and also sat out Tuesday's victory over the Trail Blazers. Duhon should benefit from a break from games Thursday and Friday.
"We'd much rather have Chris playing," Skiles said. "Hopefully this is something that now he can just put behind him and that will be it for the rest of the season."
Andres Nocioni had 15 points off the bench in the first half He finished with 25. . . . Skiles had said Michael Sweetney was in store for more playing time because Darius Songaila is out with a broken foot, but Sweetney did not play for the second straight game. . . . Going into Wednesday's game, Tyson Chandler had four straight double-digit rebounding games. He finished with nine.