Ron Artest is now lapping it up in Indiana, his Pacers heading towards a playoff berth while the Bulls, whose squad he was a member for his first two and a half seasons continue to struggle.  Artest, who almost became the fifth player in NBA history to record a quadruple double against the Miami Heat two days ago, said the Bulls-Pacers trade which saw himself and Jalen Rose amongst others was simply a swap of defense for offense, and thus far his philosophy hasn?t been far from being accurate.

According to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune the Bulls have yielded an average of 100.4 points a game and surrendered 100 points or more 12 times.  The opposition had averaged 95.3 points against the Bulls prior to the trade.

"They need to set a defensive tone for the last [nine] games, have a team meeting or something. You can't just play for the season to be over," said Artest.

But they're averaging 92.3 points a game since Jalen Rose and Travis Best came aboard, as opposed to 86.3 points before.

Things may also get worse for the Bulls, Ron Artest was their best perimeter defender and Charles Oakley has been their best in the paint, but he seems to have only nine games left before riding off into the sunset, the Bulls taking another defensive hit.

"It's everything together," Cartwright said. "There's nothing that we do defensively that is glaringly wrong. If I were to say we're bad wing defenders?we're not. Or our guards were bad defensively?they're not. Or we're bad interior defenders?we're not. We're just not consistent."