Did the Bulls trash-talk themselves into a loss Wednesday to the Charlotte Bobcats? The Bobcats say yes.

"They said some things like, `We lost to the Bad News Bears.' That kind of got to us a little bit and motivated us," said Melvin Ely, the Chicagoan from Thornton High School who had a game- and season-high 20 points. "Anytime you win in this league, it's not luck. We lost that first game to them, but then when they got a loss (Dec. 20 in Chicago), don't go speaking about it. That motivated us a lot."