Charles Oakley's consistent critique this season, one he reprised Wednesday night, is that teams can't win playing 10 to 12 guys.

"Tell him we won six championships playing that way," Bulls coach Bill Cartwright said.

Once again, Cartwright went to his bench early and often, using 11 players by halftime. But Utah wore down the attempt at depth in a 90-78 victory in front of 18,871 at the Delta Center.

The Bulls have now lost 26 straight road games to Western Conference teams, with three remaining on this trip.

Matters broke down Wednesday with the starters playing. .

Back-to-back turnovers?one by Oakley, one by Ron Artest?led to dunks by Karl Malone and Andrei Kirilenko with just over seven minutes remaining in the third quarter. Suddenly, a six-point halftime deficit had grown to 57-44.

The two times the Bulls pulled to nine points down in the fourth quarter, the lineup was reserves Marcus Fizer, Trenton Hassell, Tyson Chandler, Fred Hoiberg and A.J. Guyton.