Forward misses 11 of 14 shots
Andray Blatche picked the ball clean off Kurt Thomas and headed down the court for an unguarded, wide-open layup in the first quarter. But when the ball inexplicably leapt from his hands as he rose for an easy two points, Blatche knew it would set the stage for a long night of struggles in a defensive-themed 87-80 loss to Chicago.
“After that layup, I knew it was going to be a long night,” said Blatche (seven points), who despite missing 11-of-14 shots and racking up four turnovers found himself on the floor in the fourth quarter, when the crowd of 18,011 at Verizon Center accordingly serenaded him with boos every time he touched the ball. “I tried to prepare myself for it mentally. That was probably one of the worst funks I’ve ever been in during my career.”
The Wizards (7-20) still managed to endure a scoreless drought of 4 minutes, 50 seconds in the final quarter and cut an eight-point Chicago lead down to three when Blatche hit one-of-two free throws with 2:03 remaining.
But after Rashard Lewis missed his fifth of five errant 3-point attempts in his Wizards debut, the Bulls (18-9) knew they had secured their ninth win in 10 games.
Chicago’s pedigreed combination of two-time All-Star Carlos Boozer (30 points, 10 rebounds, seven assists) and 2009 rookie of the year Derrick Rose (25 points, five assists, five rebounds) was far superior to Washington’s secondary backcourt pairing of Nick Young (22 points) and Kirk Hinrich (19 points, nine assists) that has come about with No. 1 overall draft pick John Wall still out indefinitely with an injured knee and Gilbert Arenas sent to Orlando the swap that brought Lewis to Washington.
