The Washington Wizards played a game with playoff implications against the Chicago Bulls Sunday night. Here’s in-depth notes for the entire game.
Nothing could be more mind-boggling than the fact that the 20-34 Washington Wizards playing the 19-38 Chicago Bulls would have playoff implications, but it did. With both teams just a handful of games out of the 8th seed, the postseason is somehow still mathematically possible for both teams.
Both teams are beginning to turn more and more to their youth, with the Bulls focusing on the development of rookie Coby White and finally featuring Daniel Gafford, and the Washington Wizards hopeful that Troy Brown, Moritz Wagner, Thomas Bryant, or Isaac Bonga can pan out and become the NBA’s next phenom.
Even though the Bulls are bad, it was always going to be a tough game away at the U.C. as the Wizards were just 7-20 on the road leading up in to this game. If it had been at Capital One Arena, the story may be different.
The Chicago Bulls were without Lauri Markkanen, Wendell Carter Jr., Otto Porter Jr., Luke Kornet, Kris Dunn, Denzel Valentine, and Chandler Hutchison in this one. The Washington Wizards were without John Wall, Garrison Mathews, and Anzejs Pasecniks.
This game started rough, with the defense-less Wizards giving up 73 points in the first half to a less-than-stellar Chicago Bulls offense. And it wouldn’t get much better on that front, with the Wizards giving up 126 total points.
On the offensive end, history was made. Bradley Beal put up a career high and Coby White put up his second 30+ point game in a row, with both teams ending up shooting the ball better than 50 percent from the field, and 40 percent or better from behind the line.
It was an offensive showcase, and the better team tonight came out on top, dropping the Wizards’ head-to-head matchup against the Bulls to 1-3 on the season. More details to follow in the coming slides!