In what is fast becoming the most disheartening season of their miserable four years in beautiful Philips Arena, the Hawks reached another low point Monday.

The team blew a nine-point advantage going into the fourth quarter of the 115-102 loss to Chicago, and the Hawks couldn't argue if any of the 9,961 in attendance on MLK Day charged them with quitting after getting the lead or having the audacity to start coasting.

That would be an awful condemnation of a team that stands 13th in a 15-team conference, but there wasn't much the Hawks could offer in defense of such charges after they were run over by the Bulls, a team that had been road kill for 19 straight games.

No explanation, no remedy "except for hard work," guard Jason Terry said.

But this was the 41st game of the season. If they haven't learned a lesson with a 14-27 record at the halfway mark of the season, when does it sink in?

"I don't know," the Hawks' Ira Newble said.

"It's got to start with practice tomorrow," Terry said.

And so on and so on.