Mirror, mirror on the NBA wall, who is today's worst team of all?

Thanks to Ron Mercer's clutch scoring and rookie Trenton Hassell's adhesive defense, the Bulls' 78-72 victory Thursday night before 17,003 at the United Center suggests it's the Miami Heat, the team they beat to end their 10-game losing streak.

Both teams now have 2-12 records, tying them with the Memphis Grizzlies, who lost to the Toronto Raptors earlier in the evening. But now it's the Heat with the 10-game losing streak, not the Bulls.

''It's still too early to say which team is the worst because the Heat and Bulls have key injuries that keep you from seeing how good either team is,'' Bulls captain Charles Oakley said. ''It's nice to put an end to the 10-game losing streak. But one win doesn't make that much difference. We still have a lot of improvement to make.''

The game came down to a scoring duel between shooting guards Mercer of the Bulls and Eddie Jones of the Heat. Mercer scored 10 of his game-high 19 points in the fourth quarter, including the winning basket, an 18-foot jumper that broke a 72-72 tie with 1:42 to play.

Jones had to settle for 15 points on 6-of-15 shooting, and he was limited to two points on 1-of-3 shooting in the fourth quarter. While one might say Mercer simply outplayed Jones, Heat coach Pat Riley offered a different explanation.

''The kind of [defensive] attention that Eddie Jones got from them, we didn't give to Mercer,'' Riley said. ''We blew two defensive assignments going down the stretch. One was where [Mercer] should have been trapped on a pick-and-roll that Oakley set. And he should have been stunted on with three guys on the catch-and-shoot that got him into the lane for the four-point lead. Eddie sees three guys, and Mercer sees nothing.''