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After treating fans to a miserable performance on Christmas Day, the Chicago Bulls have some reflection to do before Wednesday night's game against the Indiana Pacers. The Bulls were crushed for a second straight game on Tuesday night, losing 120-97 to the Houston Rockets in front of a national audience.
Speaking with reporters after the game, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau was clearly frustrated with the way his team played. Hoping to follow up recent uneven performances with a strong effort against Houston, the Bulls completely fell flat.
"My job is to have them ready and obviously we were not ready so that part's on me," Thibodeau said. "The thing is we had a bad fourth quarter in New York, we had a bad performance in Atlanta, and we followed it up today. So things can change very quickly in this league."
After the victory over the Knicks, the Bulls' eighth win in 10 games, it seemed like Chicago was finally figuring out how to succeed without star guard Derrick Rose, but things have unraveled in the past two games. Before the beat down at home to the Rockets, the Bulls lost a frustrating game to the Atlanta Hawks on the road, 92-75.
"Everything was bad. Terrible Christmas. We didn't play with the right edge. Just a real disappointing loss," Bulls center Joakim Noah said after the game. Many fans would presumably agree with that assessment.