“They scored the ball easily,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau observed about a Houston Rockets’ domination in a 120-97 thumping of the Bulls. “Transition, open shots. We did not control the ball. We did not get back. We did not make multiple efforts and had low energy on offense. We gave them everything.

“They completely outplayed us.”

“We didn’t play with the right edge,” said Joakim Noah. “It’s a real disappointing loss. Our defense was not really good. Everything was bad. Terrible Christmas.”

“My job is to have them ready,” said Thibodeau. “Obviously we were not ready. That part is on me. 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. Things can change very quickly in this league. If you are not right and ready and don’t have an edge, you are not going to win without playing with the right amount of intensity. In the last three games, they were putting up 120 points. Obviously, we did not understand and I did not do enough of a job of delivering the message of what we were going to have to do to be successful.”

via Sam Smith of Bulls.com