Clippers' loss has flagrant scent - With Maggette out, depleted team loses for the fourth time in five games, 92-73. Bulls' Nocioni gets involved in some rugged play.

He talked of his ambitious hopes down the road if his team can stay healthy, knocking on wood several times in an attempt to ward off bad luck.

It may be time to move on to horseshoes, rabbit's feet or four-leaf clovers.

Playing without leading scorer Corey Maggette and rookie Al Thornton and then losing Quinton Ross, the undermanned Clippers were overwhelmed by the Chicago Bulls in a testy 92-73 loss at Staples Center with an unannounced undercard of Andres Nocioni against the Clippers' front line.

The Clippers are 5-4, but they're heading in the wrong direction, losing four out of their last five games.

"It was a tough game for us," Dunleavy said. "Our smalls were depleted."

They now brace for their toughest week thus far, hosting the Denver Nuggets on Wednesday, traveling to play the Phoenix Suns on Friday and returning to play the New Orleans Hornets the next day. The three teams are a combined 24-7.

Chris Kaman scored 21 points and collected eight rebounds to lead the Clippers, who used their fifth starting lineup and scored a season-low in points on 39.4% shooting.

"We just didn't have enough," Kaman said afterward.

While the Clippers are aching, other teams are getting healthy against them.

For a second consecutive night, a team obtained a first against them. The Bulls notched their first road victory after Golden State won its first game against the Clippers on Friday.

Ben Gordon scored 25 points, Nocioni added 21 points and Ben Wallace took eight offensive rebounds.

The Clippers beat the Bulls, 97-91, on Nov. 6, a game in which Cuttino Mobley dumped in 33 points while posting up the smaller Kirk Hinrich.

Mobley, still recovering from a strained right groin, did not score until 1:27 left in the first half when he made two free throws.

Tim Thomas made two three-point shots, one he converted into a four-point play, in the last minute just to narrow the halftime score to an 11-point Bulls' edge. Chicago outscored the Clippers 24-8 in the paint in the first half, with things getting sticky midway in the second quarter.

Ruben Patterson, jostling for position with Nocioni, bumped hard into the Bulls defender. Nocioni retaliated by collaring Patterson around his neck, picking up a flagrant foul.