Del Negro wants Bulls to be willing to share

Considering the Bulls added a dynamic young point guard this season, they should probably rank higher than 24th in the league in assists. But that's where they stood on Friday morning, and coach Vinny Del Negro has already been preaching the value of sharing the ball more generously.

"I don't know if they're struggling with understanding that, they just have to do it," Del Negro said following Friday's practice at the Berto Center. "We talked about that a lot today, and hopefully it will transfer to the game. We have to move the basketball and go from strong to weak.

"Especially the better teams you play in this league, they load up defensively on one side, your strong side (where the ball is), and if you move the basketball and attack, we have guys on the perimeter that can break guys off the dribble. We just have to be smarter."

If ever the Bulls had a winnable game on the schedule, tonight figures to be it. Washington has the worst record in the Eastern Conference and hosted the Lakers on Friday night before flying to Chicago. The Bulls have been off since Wednesday.

"We had a couple winnable games slip away from us," forward Drew Gooden said, referring to losses against Philadelphia and Milwaukee earlier this week. "We have a chance to make up for that."

Illini's Brown steps forward: A year ago, former Illinois star Dee Brown reportedly turned down a non-guaranteed contract to stay with Utah, and ended up spending the season in Turkey.

Now the Proviso East product is a starting NBA point guard. Sure, it's for the struggling Washington Wizards and Brown has averaged just 18.5 minutes in his first eight games as a starter, but it's a nice milestone.

Veteran Antonio Daniels was injured at the time and coach Eddie Jordan, who has since been fired, thought Juan Dixon was better coming off the bench with second-year guard Nick Young. Jordan called Brown into his office before playing Atlanta on Nov. 19 and revealed the news.

"A smile came on my face automatically," Brown said in the Washington Times. "It was just a crazy experience. It was just humbling and a blessing. This is my first start in the NBA. I've just got to go out there and try to run the team and play whatever role they need me to play."

Daniels is healthy again, so it's possible new coach Ed Tapscott could alter the lineup before facing the Bulls tonight at the United Center. Brown played his best game on Tuesday at New Jersey, finishing with 8 points and 7 assists, while Washington pulled off its only road win of the season.

Good for a rebound: Drew Gooden on going 1-for-16 from the field in the past two games: "I'm starting to see some different looks, just something for me to get used to. Then again, there's no excuses. I didn't play that well, we all know that. It's one night for me and I feel like I can make up for that."

In the five games before he hit a slump, Gooden averaged 19.4 points, 10.6 rebounds and shot 53 percent from the field.