Written by Jorge Castillo at WashingtonPost.com
About an hour before tip-off at United Center on Wednesday night, the Chicago Bulls announced that Derrick Rose, their starting point guard and a former league MVP, would not play against the Washington Wizards because of right hamstring tendinitis. The late development was another blow to an injury-ravaged Bulls roster already without three other key cogs. These Bulls bore no resemblance to the team that was expected to contend for Eastern Conference supremacy.
The Wizards, as healthy as they’ve been all season, failed to capitalize in a 109-104 loss on national television, a setback that stung even more considering the Bulls are one of the teams Washington is chasing for a playoff spot. The defeat dropped Washington (26-30) four games behind the Bulls, now in sixth place in the East at 30-26. The Wizards remain three games behind the eighth-place Charlotte Hornets.
“They played with a sense of desperation,” Wizards guard Bradley Beal said. They didn’t play with three of their main guys. That should just speak for itself. That should just automatically energize and be able to motivate us to get a win and get out of here. But it was the total opposite. They played with desperation and we didn’t.”
The letdown stemmed from defensive shortcomings. Washington had held opponents to less than 90 points in three of its four games since the all-star break — all victories — by checking egos and exerting more energy.
That resurgence was absent Wednesday. Already ineffective in the first half, the Wizards imploded in the third quarter. Chicago made its first eight shots from the floor in the period and unloaded a 13-0 spree to build a 14-point advantage. Washington trimmed the deficit, which reached 15 points, to three in the fourth quarter, but faltered down the stretch.
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