Bulls have no answer for Wizards in 102-8 6loss
This game was like reliving a couple of bad memories for the Bulls.
First of all, there was last year's playoff series against Washington, when the Bulls got pushed around by the Wizards' big man tandem of Nene and Marcin Gortat.
Then there was the sting of two days ago, when the Bulls' flat performance resulted in a 20-point loss to Utah.
On Friday night in Washington, the Bulls came out flat, got worked over inside and suffered another lopsided loss, falling 102-86 at the Verizon Center.
“They were more physical than us,” Joakim Noah said after the game, according to bulls.com. “They moved the ball better, they executed better, they played a better all-around game.”
This was an accurate reenactment of last year's first-round playoff series, won by Washington in five games. The Bulls had trouble dealing with Gortat and Nene in that series and the two 7-footers flexed their muscles against new Bulls center Pau Gasol.
Gortat led the Wizards (25-11) with 21 points, 13 rebounds and 2 blocks. Nene added 15 points and 11 boards. On the other side, Gasol had a low-impact double-double with 12 points and 13 boards, while Noah grabbed 10 rebounds but scored just 3 points.
“They are always a problem the way they play,” Derrick Rose said of Gortat and Nene. “They play an aggressive game, dictated everything going on out there.”
Rose broke out of his recent shooting slump and led the Bulls (25-12) with 19 points. He hit 8 of 19 shots overall, but missed 7 of 8 attempts from 3-point range. Washington point guard John Wall beat Rose in a head-to-head matchup for the first time in the NBA. Wall had 16 points and 12 assists.
Jimmy Butler had a rare off night, hitting just 2 of 12 shots for 10 points. Mike Dunleavy missed his fourth game with a right ankle injury and will probably be out a while. He told reporters at shootaround he's planning to have an MRI on Saturday.
Is something wrong with the Bulls? They played poorly for the second straight game. Rewind the tape a little more, though, and there was a nice home win over Houston on Monday. Less than three weeks ago, they pulled off a nice win in Washington.
So there's no reason to panic. The next test will be to play well at home, something that hasn't always panned out. The Bulls have three straight home games coming up, against Milwaukee on Saturday, followed by Orlando and Washington again.
The Bulls started this game with a 2-0 lead and it was all downhill from there. They missed 8 of their first 9 shots, while falling behind 10-2.
Overall in the first quarter, the Bulls hit 5 of 26 shots from the field. They trailed 30-10 until Tony Snell drained a 3-pointer with one second left.
The margin dropped to 41-34 with 4:16 left in the second quarter. The Bulls gave up an 18-8 run to finish the first half, though, and trailed by 17 at intermission.
In the third quarter, the Bulls closed within 72-66, but one-time Bull Rasual Butler put an end to that push by draining 3-pointers on Washington's next two trips.
A Snell 3-pointer made it 94-86 with 3:33 left, but that was the last time the Bulls scored.
Get the latest Bulls news via Twitter by following @McGrawDHBulls.