Kirk Hinrich's silence said more than anything that was about to come out of his mouth.

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Joe Murphy/NBAE/Getty ImagesThe Bulls' only chance against LeBron James seems to be hoping he has an off-night. He didn't have one Sunday.

The Chicago Bulls' veteran guard looked like he had just seen a ghost. It's understandable, considering what a scary scene he had just witnessed over the previous three hours.

LeBron James had just torched Hinrich and his teammates for 37 points, 12 rebounds and 11 assists; breaking the Bulls' will in the process. I asked Hinrich what he and his team could do differently against the reigning MVP as they head into a Game 5 eliminator.

"Um," he said after pausing for a few seconds. "Well, we can hopefully get him to miss some shots. He hit some tough ones. We're going to do our best."

The problem for the Bulls is they've been doing their best.

When James is shooting the way he did during Game 4 -- 11-of-17 from the field and 9-of-10 from the foul line -- it simply doesn't matter. On two different occasions on Sunday afternoon, James nailed buzzer-beating shots, the second of which came just in front of the half court stripe to end the third quarter.

"Those are definitely back-breaking shots," James admitted. "Those are momentum shots that you hope will go in for your team."

But it was more than those shots that did in the Bulls. It was the intense focus that James brought with him to the United Center. James was on a mission from the beginning -- he wanted to send a message that the series was over.

Mission accomplished.

"I felt good today," he said. "I was really focused on this particular game, because it was the most important game of the season for us. I just wanted to kind of force my will tonight and get us the win."

James' performance snapped the Bulls' confidence like a twig and sucked all the life out of the United Center crowd. When he wasn't raining down three-pointers, he was dishing off to his teammates, notably Antwan Jamison and Mo Williams, who combined for 43 points.

"I don't think we're demoralized," Bulls center Joakim Noah said. "I think we did a pretty good job at times when he's hitting shots like that. We just got to find a way sometimes to get the ball out of his hands."

As the emotional leader of the team, you'd expect to hear Noah say something like that, but the looks on some of the players' faces in the quiet Bulls locker room told a different story.

"LeBron can't have 40, Jamison 25 and Mo Williams 20," Noah continued. "If LeBron's going to have 40, we've got to find a way to slow down those guys. He is a very good player and that's what good players do. They hit shots, bang from all over the place, hitting half court shots. Things went their way tonight, but we can't really control that.

"The only thing we can control are the things that we can do as a team and how we can get better. The way we can get better is to realize that they were tougher than us mentally. The mental part of the game is so important, especially in the playoffs. Today they were tougher than us."

But how do you explain that considering how much confidence the Bulls had played with during the past two games?

"The explanation is LeBron James," Bulls head coach Vinny Del Negro said. "I thought we contested shots pretty good, but that's what they do all year. They give the ball to LeBron, they open up the court, he gets to the middle of the court, if you don't help he's at the basket or he's dumping it off, or he's getting you in foul trouble."

Now the Bulls are faced with the unenviable task of attempting to slow down a locomotive that is going at full speed. Even the most eternal of optimists think the Bulls' season is going to come to an end on Tuesday night in Cleveland.

What else can they do to stop James?

"Just try to keep playing the way we've been playing," Bulls rookie forward Taj Gibson said. "Force other people to beat us. Put pressure on him ¡K we've been wanting him to take the outside shot. If he's going to have to try to score 50 to beat us then that's what we want. But we're going to keep throwing bodies at him and make other people beat us."

Gibson's heart is in the right place, but reality tells a different story.

There is no answer for LeBron James, only a faint a hope that some days he is simply not as good as others.

Unfortunately for the Bulls, Sunday was not one of those days.