Less than 24 hours after a solid win against the Atlanta Hawks, the Chicago Bulls suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of the Indiana Pacers 116-110. It was also a frustrating loss as the Bulls were up 20 points in the second half only to watch it all crumble away. Indiana outscored Chicago by nine in the third and 13 in the final quarter. This was a team on a long losing streak who were missing their best player.
There were a variety of factors which sparked this implosion by the Bulls: offensive inefficiency, lack of defensive pressure on drives to the hoop, fatigue from playing a second game of a back to back, or some combination of those.