Wizards Ground Bulls in Game 2 in Overtime

April 23, 2014 @ admin → No Comments

Tuesday was Earth Day. Or, as Chicago Bulls fans were hoping, back down to earth day for the Washington Wizards. Instead of that happening, the Bulls fell. With a thud. A 101-99 overtime loss at the United Center that sends them to Washington down 2-0 in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series.

The Bulls couldn’t have dug a deeper hole if they had a shovel. In which case they actually might have clanked it.

Maybe the Luvabulls against the Wizards dancers?

After blowing an early double-digit lead in a Game 1 loss, the fell behind by 17 points in the first quarter and battled back. So in Game 2 the Bulls blew a 10-point, fourth-quarter lead. Five fourth-quarter turnovers (three by NBA Defensive Player of the Year Joakim Noah, who received his award before the game from former NBA star Dikembe Mutombo, and two by forward Taj Gibson).

The Wizards backcourt of Bradley Beal and John Wall — which wasn’t much of an offensive factor in Game 1 — stepped up. Beal, who missed a shot that would have won the game in regulation, had 11 of his game-high 26 points in the fourth. Wall had 16 points and seven assists.

“I think we did a great job of staying calm and composed,” Wall said. “Early in the season we would get rattled. … We made the big shots and got offensive rebounds. Guys stepped up and got defensive stops down the stretch.”

The Bulls had a chance to send the game to a second overtime, but Kirk Hinrich missed a free throw with 2.4 seconds left, then intentionally missed the second. But the Bulls couldn’t pull off the miracle.

“I went up there thinking I would knock them down,” Hinrich said. “Tonight I just couldn’t do it. However, I really felt that I should have made the layup. I was not fatigued. That was not a factor for me. With the fouls tonight, my minutes [31:40] were not that great.”

Bulls forward Jimmy Butler’s were. He played all 48 of regulation and the five in overtime. And had six points on 2-of-9 shooting from the field. Gibson had 22 points and 10 rebounds off the bench, and Noah had 20 points and 12 rebounds.

Of losing an 87-77 lead in the fourth quarter, Bulls guard D.J. Augustin — who had a career playoff-high 25 points — said, “They’re just a good defensive team. Their bigs played strong down low and their very quick guards are out front. We feel we should be winning and playing better than we are. We are all disappointed, and we know we have to play hard and win Game 3.”

And Game 4 wouldn’t hurt to win, too.

“They got to some loose balls, which resulted in some open threes,” Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said. “We didn’t. We dug ourselves a big hole early. We expended a lot of energy to get out of that hole. We came up short.”

And that pretty much sums up the latest dirt on the Bulls.

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