Wed, 11/19 Bulls @ Blazers

Wet paper towels offer more resistance than the Bulls' big men.

With Luol Deng watching because of a sore left hamstring, the Bulls were manhandled physically for the second straight night, meekly falling to 6-54 since 1998 on this annual extended November trip.

It's the worst Bulls loss since a 140-89 loss at Indiana on March 28, 2003.

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the Blazers owned a 52-34 advantage in points in the paint.

But, wait, there's more: Trailing 55-28, the Bulls had to call timeout because they couldn't inbound the ball.

Portland led by as many as 47.

Here was the Bulls offense, typified in the third quarter with the Bulls trailing by 30: Larry Hughes runs up after Greg Oden, with 11 points and 10 rebounds, scored on a postup move and shot with just a few seconds gone on the 24-second clock. The ball caromed wildly, picked up by Brandon Roy with a game high 20, who fired to Aldridge for a lob dunk.

That's right. No one knew the shot was going up that quickly, so even if the defense tried to get back there was no chance.

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Bulls offense: Typified by Thomas later in the third as he grabbed a rebound and dribbled out 94 feet, falling down and throwing up a wild shot.

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Larry Hughes, starting at small forward for Deng, took an inbounds pass after the Trailblazers blew out to a 12-1 lead and quickly fired a three without anyone else touching the ball. This after the Bulls opened with three turnovers in their first five possessions, so perhaps Hughes just figured no one would catch the ball.

Thomas threw an overhand fastball pass to Noah from about three feet away that flew eight feet over Noah's head. Andres Nocioni, team high with 13, kept losing sight of his man leading to backdoor slams several times. Look, no one is being singled out here. Bulls players backed off the three-point line despite Portland hitting their first two threes. The Bulls had just six assists with two minutes left in the third quarter.

Gordon dribbled the ball multiple times at the top of the circle and then ran into an offensive foul. Thomas followed that turning the corner and running into an offensive foul. Rose threw balls into Joel Przybilla's underarms and dribbled the ball off himself out of bounds. Przybilla had a season high 14 points with nine rebounds and three blocks as everyone scored for Portland.

Quoting Bulls Head Coach Vinny Del Negro

“They jumped on us early. They put a little pressure on us and got us out of it a little bit. Their big guys just controlled the paint on us. We got in foul trouble early. From the tip, they controlled the tempo of the game. We had too many turnovers and we got back on our heels. The list can go on and on. It was just one of those games where we could never get anything going and give Portland a lot of credit.

“Their size with Oden and Pryzbilla and their length… they share the ball and get out in the open court… Aldridge… the list goes on. They’ve got a lot of young guys over there and a lot of long bodies. They gave us a lot of trouble. They did a better job with their pressure. We just never got into anything and from the jump, they were on us.

“It was just one of those games. Its not one guy, it’s the team. They jumped on us early and didn’t let us up. Give Portland a lot of credit. For us, I’m curious every night how we’re going to respond. We have to be on guard and we have to be together. We have to play at a high level to give ourselves opportunities, especially on the road. We haven’t been able to do that – we didn’t do it last night in LA and tonight, obviously, was even worse. We’ve had that personality to bounce back, but we didn’t have it. They really did a nice job moving the basketball, sharing the basketball, and got us on our heels from the get-go.”