Washington
Philip Maymin
Basketball News Services
The Wizards lost to the Bulls again, going down 113-103last night in the United Center, and in at least one way, this loss was worse than the first. This time, their top trio of Gilbert Arenas, Larry Hughes, and Antawn Jamison all played quite well, with Arenas even exploding for 39 points, yet it still wasn't enough. What more can Washington do?
The answer, of course, is defense. Chicago's Kirk Hinrich stepped up as the fourth quarter man with Ben Gordon in foul trouble, scoring 21 of his 34 points in the final stanza. He scored his 34 points in just 24 minutes of action. It doesn't take an advanced math degree to figure out how he would have done on a per-48 minute basis, and Michael Jordan's name comes quickly to mind. Ben Gordon also scored 14 points in just 19 minutes off the bench.
Are the Wizards guards not defending them? That's not it: both Hughes and Arenas had 5 and 4 steals, respectively, and 2 and 1 block(s), as well. But somehow these guys end up open for shots: Hinrich made 5 of 5 from downtown!
Is the issue three-point shooting? Both teams made 8 treys but it took the Wizards an amazing 10 more attempts than Chicago to accomplish it. If they had made just 3 more of those 10, this game would have been a close one.
Now it's time to come home and hope they can win their first playoff game since 1988 en route to winning their first playoff series since 1982.
NEXT GAME
Washington (trails the series 0-2) faces Chicago (who by symmetry lead the series 2-0) on Saturday, April 30th, this time in Washington, where they hope their hometown fans will give them the boost they need to win. The game starts at 3:00pm Eastern and will be broadcast on CSN, TNT, and SCORE.
TEAM NOTES
This Saturday, the Wizards will host a street festival outside of MCI Center. On Saturday, April 30 from 12:00 noon through the 3:00 start time of Game 3 of the Wizards-Bulls first round Playoff series, F street will be closed for cars, but open for Playoff crazed fans.
INJURY UPDATE
Peter John Ramos(knee),Jarvis Hayes(knee), andDamone Brown (shoulder) are on the injured list.
Tom Knott ofThe Washington Timeswrites: You have to accept that bad things happen in the playoffs. You have to know that teams are going to make runs on you and referees are going to miss calls, and there are going to be moments when you have to learn to absorb it all. The Wizards have shown no capacity to be resilient in the playoffs. They have shown no ability to roll with a punch. The bad stuff hits, and the Wizards let the bad get worse.The Wizards start to teeter, and their knees start to buckle, and they start to look like a punch-drunk fighter in dire need of a standing-eight count.
John N. Mitchell ofThe Washington Timeswrites: When Chicago Bulls coach Scott Skiles met with players last fall to conduct his first training camp with the team, the introduction was, well, different. According to Bulls assistant John Bach, Skiles gave one of the most spectacular opening addresses he has heard in his 53 years in basketball.Skiles told the players 'you've heard some things about me, and I've heard some things about you,' Bach related. 'I'm going to put five things I know about you on the blackboard, and you can put five things you know about me up here, and they'll probably be true.'
Michael Wilbon ofThe Washington Postwrites: Coach Scott Skiles actually benched Hinrich, who missed his first two shots and got himself into foul trouble. Yet, Hinrich said he felt he couldn't miss once Skiles put him back because Jannero Pargo and Gordon were in foul trouble. Apparently, there's nothing like the sight of Wizards defenders to get a guy into his shooting rhythm.Hinrich hit 12 of his final 13 shots, including all five of his three-pointers. The Bulls shot 48.8 percent . . . 5 percent higher than their average during the season.
Mike Wise ofThe Washington Postwrites: It looks mighty bleak for the D.C. Five, especially since the franchise last won a playoff game in 1988 and last won a postseason series in 1982.This is so long ago that, at the time, Journey was thought to have more staying power than U2.
Michael Lee ofThe Washington Postwrites: The Washington Wizards were already dazed when Chicago Bulls guard Kirk Hinrich knocked down the last of his 21 fourth-quarter points.They were already confused when Bulls reserve Ben Gordon hit a ridiculous circus shot by slapping the ball off the backboard. And they already were trying to figure how reserves Jannero Pargo and Adrian Griffin -- neither of whom played in Game 1 of this playoff series -- had turned around a game the Wizards seemingly had in control. But they weren't fully humiliated until a matchup that would appear to work in the Wizards' favor turned out to be oh-so sour. Late in the fourth quarter, guard Larry Hughes elevated for what should've been a two-handed slam -- but Bulls forward Andres Nocioni jumped in front of him, stuffing the attempt with one hand before falling on his back. Nocioni was down, but it was the Wizards who were knocked out, with a 113-103 loss at United Center on Wednesday night.