Problem is, disintegrations happen only so often a season that it could be difficult to dedicate a lot of time to why it happens and how to prevent it. Often times, we have to get ready for the next game; a game which if ends in a runaway victory acts as a false cure to what ailed a night before. Additionally, disintegration can occur because a team abides by the set game plan that got them the lead, and suddenly becomes ineffective against a team who is playing unpredictable and anxious.

These players likely have little idea on how to change a game plan that has become ineffective while the clock is still ticking. They know what they have done in practice, and when the going gets tough they try and execute the practiced plan. Anything unpredictable likely will leave the Sonics bewildered and without direction. The direction, the creativity should have come from McMillan.

What makes the Bulls game disappointing is that we as fans looked at the schedule, saw the Chicago Bulls, and thought, "just what the doctor ordered". Unfortunately, things didn't go according to plan and it helped send the team, if it loses tonight, into a tailspin and back under .500 for the first time in a long time.

The Sonics-Bulls ticket became the 2002 "bobble head" in disgust night at Key Arena. The Sonics give away a few of these at home every season, a tradition that started in the Westphal era. It seems to come on nights where the Sonics need home wins, have a stretch of home games, and the NBA cellar-dwellers come to town. We always point to lack of motivation as the culprit, but lack of motivation didn't guide in Bulls three-pointers. Nor was it a glaring lack of defense that turns 180 degrees of Sonic wins. Motivation may be part of it, but I have a feeling it goes deeper then that. Saturday's home loss to a bottom-dweller was not an isolated incident and likely points to something the Sonics simply do not have enough of right now. But that's OK because this team is young and is just coming together. They will need to take their lumps and whatever doesn't kill them hopefully will make them stronger and wiser. Hopefully the Sonics can cease with the massive off-season turnover that makes us fan watch the guys in green (whoever they may be) take the same lumps and growing pains all over again.

On the other hand, the Sonics' general youth doesn't leave this team helpless, especially not against a Bulls team that is even younger then we are. There is always that figure that puts it all together on the sideline, who may not currently have the luxury of his players figuring out and correcting it on their own, but should certainly have the skills to explain to his players what's happening.

Coaches have to smell what's coming, and be very wary of what may lie ahead. And this latest breakdown is the onus primarily of Head Coach Nate McMillan, not solely if at all, on his players.

At "Coaches U", a fictitious Coaching University, there has to be an unspoken rung of topics coaches much teach his team, where at the bottom are fundamentals and the top are ins and outs of the elite. To understand how and why disintegration happens, might be a topic many chapters ahead of these Sonics, too far ahead for the players to figure out themselves while running plays on the floor.

Those of you who are not able to watch Sonics games consistently, I know have a tendency to look at the stats and decide who didn't bring it. Please do not do this. You may be surprised to know that those same players can play the same way and the Sonics win easily. Additionally, a player like Brent Barry and Rashard Lewis can come in with the same intensity on 2 given nights and end up with 6, and 26. Most of their production comes off wide-open shots, and sometimes the opportunities are limited by the defense, or they simply don't hit 6 three pointers that night. These are also players who don't instinctively force shots. For every shot they don't take, is a shot someone else takes and the offense is generally concerned with getting a good shot.

Stats sometimes are accurate in their translation on who did not bring it, but let's be clear on this, can be dangerously inaccurate. Very rarely do single players cost us a game, 99% of time we are looking at some form of strategic failure.

The reason why we lost to the Bulls is evident. They played hard, with heart, and when they were down they took and made big shots. A Coaching U principle that I'm sure McMillan warns, "you don't ever play a team's record" and it's about defeating 12 hungry guys that want to take this win from us. The Bulls on Saturday were more then hungry, and they took this win from us. The Blazers were hungry, and they took that win from us. The Kings without Webber have been hungry all season-long, and they took that win from us.

We are like the meek youngster that gets his cookies snatched at lunch. But we can't cry about it. Most every NBA team at one point was that youngster for a night.

The ideal way to deal with the situation is to expect the kid to be tougher; expecting the Sonics to contest and stop every look, shot, Peeler, Pierce, Stoudamire, and Van Exel the opposition can throw at it. We could also turn sheep into a Tigers; expecting Rashard Lewis to defend like a 25 year old Payton, and Barry to take relentless shots like Allen Iverson.

But the realistic approach would be plain, quickly implemented guidance from someone who's been there, and is familiar with the opponent's cookie-snatching weaknesses.

For he knows, the opposition's game plan that is looking at a deficit will be an adjustment based on what they saw from the Sonics, what their strengths are, and how many points they are down. Whatever the opposing Coach told his team at halftime or after the 3rd, Nate has to anticipate it, and defensively offset it to make that adjustment difficult, if not work against them.

Lacking things as fundamental to the game as rebounding, the Sonics sometimes will have to call on Nate's strategic creativity and keenness for defense to hold onto or seize momentum. Not to the extreme of a George Karl, who even designed plays to get steals; but definitely to the tune of a changed defense that would nullify open 3-point attempts. That creativity didn't appear to rise to the challenge versus the Bulls, and by not doing so helped let this team down by not being prepared.

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