Late in Monday night's 101-77 loss to the Indiana Pacers, Kendall Gill rose from his seat near the coaching staff and moved to lie alone on the floor at the end of the bench, near the ballboys.

The move spoke louder than any public statement about coach Scott Skiles' decision to make a five-man substitution and keep four starters on the bench for the final 21 minutes 50 seconds of the Bulls' 11th straight loss at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Privately, players alternated between confusion, bemusement and amusement, even faking rookie Kirk Hinrich into thinking that Skiles had called for him to enter the game midway through the fourth quarter.

"What are you going to do?" Gill said afterward. "The whole year has been up and down. I don't have anything to say. Just play the season out."

Skiles made his move after becoming upset that only Antonio Davis crossed halfcourt to foul Reggie Miller on a breakaway layup with 9:50 remaining in the third quarter.

"It's common sense," Skiles said. "We were down [less than] 20 and we turned it over and they threw it end-to-end and laid the ball in and nobody ran back. That's an obvious move."