CHICAGO -- It takes a lot to shock Joakim Noah.

The Bulls' outgoing third-year center usually takes life in stride and responds to questions that focus on the impending doom of his team's playoff fate accordingly. He is convinced, and has been for quite some time despite missing almost two months due to plantar fasciitis, that his team will be fine. Who cares if they were a few games out of a playoff berth at the moment? They would all get healthy again and start playing well. It was that simple. Why sweat it?

That's why his response was so surprising when I asked him Thursday morning whether he knew how many games his team had left or not. "I know it's around 15, 16 games, right?" he said.

"Twelve," I said.

"Twelve games left!" he said, with the type of excitable emotion that people have grown to love and/or hate about the two-time NCAA champion. "Wow, that's unbelievable, man. I wasn't sure but -- I know it's not a lot of games. That's why we got to make sure we take care of business tonight."

The only thing the Bulls might have taken care of on Thursday night was any shot at a playoff berth.

In a game they absolutely had to have, they played their worst game of the season, getting crushed by the Heat 103-74. After the game, even Noah -- a man who is never at a loss for words -- had a hard time explaining what had just occurred.

Shocked wasn't even the word to describe his mental status. He was completely stunned.

He sat in his chair under the guise of a gray hoodie and tried to make sense of everything. "I think they played very well and we played terrible," he said. "We didn't play with a lot of energy. Our help defense was pretty bad. Every aspect of the game we played really bad. Tough day at work. Every loss is tough right now because it is the end of the season. To lose this ... at this point of the season is tough."

So tough, that Bulls head coach Vinny Del Negro admitted that it was probably his team's most disappointing defeat of the season. "We did not have enough fight in us tonight," he said. "We beat each other up more in practice than we did the opponent tonight. That is the frustrating part -- their effort was better, their energy was better and that is why they beat us up."

The Bulls' effort and execution was so bad on this night that even the Heat players took notice. "We were a little shocked," Heat center Jermaine O'Neal said. "We talked about it a little bit on the bench. Especially all the conversation that was kind of here in the papers and stuff like that, their struggles and the importance of the game for them, also. We were a little shocked about it, but more than anything we felt that we needed to come out and jump on those guys and handle our own business. We were prepared for a fight. It didn't quite happen that way, but you got to commend our team, too, for what we did on the defensive end."

That's exactly what Bulls rookie Taj Gibson did after the game was over. "They just came out ready to play," Gibson said. "They just let us know how the playoffs would be if we were in it. They really punched us in the mouth tonight."

All the major problems that the Bulls faced throughout the season came to the forefront during this contest. They shot poorly (33 percent from the field), they didn't play with consistent aggression or energy (outrebounded 36-29), and they couldn't get a basket when it mattered (scoring a season-low 74 points).

Both Noah and Gibson tried to tell everyone that the team was just going to forget about Thursday night and try to turn things around, but deep down both players knew better. Their words sounded just as flat as the Bulls looked.

There are still three weeks of games left to play, but this particular one might have left the kind of mark that can't be erased. "The situation is what it is," Noah said. "There's 11 games left and we have to be on edge every time we step on the court. Unfortunately, we didn't play with the edge we needed to, to compete tonight."

The harsh reality of the 82-game NBA schedule becomes a lot more serious when you realize that time is running out and there isn't much you can do to change it.

Nick Friedell is a regular Daily Dime contributor.

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