Ben Gordon scored 22 points and the Chicago Bulls hung on for a 98-86 victory over the Wizards on Friday after watching a 21-point lead dwindle to seven in the fourth quarter.
The Bulls spent most of the night picking on the Eastern Conference’s worst team, then hung on after a defensive lapse allowed the Wizards to get back into the game.
Chicago led 78-57 early in the fourth before Washington made its move. The Wizards were within 89-82 after Antawn Jamison’s layup with just under three minutes left, but Gordon answered with one of his own and the Bulls hung on.
Chicago is in a soft spot in its schedule, although it was tough to tell given how it had played recently.
The Bulls fell by 10 to lowly Minnesota last week — their sixth loss in seven games — and followed that with a less-than-inspired 99-94 win over lowly Sacramento on Tuesday. This, however, was more like it.
Although he committed four turnovers, Gordon simply buried the Wizards when he didn’t give the ball away. He was 4-of-7 on 3-pointers and reached the 20-point mark for the fourth straight game.
Former Wizards guard Larry Hughes scored 12 of his 17 points in the fourth quarter after getting booed for most of the night. He has said he wants to get traded if he can’t get more minutes, but the odds of a bigger role with the Bulls appear slim given their crowd in the backcourt.
Tyrus Thomas added 16 points and 10 rebounds, and Drew Gooden scored 16 while grabbing 11 rebounds for Chicago.
The Wizards lost despite getting a career-high 28 points on 12-for-15 shooting from Nick Young. Jamison scored 12 after pouring in a season-high 32 points in Wednesday’s six-point loss to Toronto.
The late push aside, it was another rough night for the Wizards. Their coach, Ed Tapscott, wasn’t around to see the comeback after getting ejected for arguing a call early in the fourth quarter.
Until then, it was another ugly effort.
The Wizards couldn’t beat short-handed Toronto on Wednesday and, for most of the night, were no match for a Bulls team with its share of issues.
With Kirk Hinrich inching closer to a return from thumb surgery and veteran Lindsey Hunter’s contract becoming guaranteed on Saturday, Hughes looks like the odd man out.
Besides Hinrich, Gooden recently missed eight games with a sprained right ankle, and Luol Deng (sprained left ankle) sat out his seventh in a row even though the Bulls hoped to have him back on Friday.
It turned out they didn’t need him.
Notes » Luol Deng said he doesn’t expect to play Saturday against Oklahoma City and was eyeing a return against Portland on Monday. He doesn’t want to rush back, though. “I don’t want to play 10 minutes and then sit down the next game, and then come back again and keep going back and forth,” he said. “Right now, we need a rhythm.” … The Bulls were 13-for-15 from the foul line after going 33 of 36 against Sacramento.
