John Lucas scores 25 as Chicago Bulls thump Washington Wizards 78-64 - NBA Recap
Washington Wizards only have a single win under the belt at the moment and the way they are playing this season, it looks like they will end with the worst record in their history.
In their 10th outing of the campaign, the Wizards put up yet another poor performance and collected yet another defeat, this time at the hands of the Chicago Bulls, to drop to 1-9.
Although the Bulls were not at their breathtaking best, the Wizards were simply pathetic. They shot only 31% from the floor including 3 for 9 from the long range. Washington were also outclassed by Bulls both in rebounds (62-46) collected and assists (17-12)
dished out.
Andray Blatche did not feature in tonight’s game due to an injury and that made things even worse for the Wizards. Their starting line-up has not fired in a single game yet and once again they failed to make any sort of impact.
The highest scorer was reserve Jordan Crawford, who had 14 points. John Wall had 11 points while JaVale McGee completed a double-double (10 points, 14 boards).
As Chicago didn’t exactly set the court on fire either with a rigid and uninspiring display, the brightest spark of the night was provided by John Lucas, the backup guard afforded a place in the starting line-up because of injury to super star Derrick Rose.
Lucas led from the front and scored his career high 25 points and 8 rebounds to lead the Bulls to victory. Although he struggled with the shooting at the start but never backed out and continued attempting the shots, which paid him off big time in the end.
"Coach (Tom) Thibodeau was telling me to stay aggressive, don't back off and don't stop shooting," Lucas said” He kept telling me if, `I'm open, shoot it. If I'm open, shoot it.' I felt like I was shooting too much and then he got on me for not shooting
the times I was open."
Reserve Kyle Korver netted 14 while Luol Deng had a double-double with 12 points and 15 rebounds.
Wizards trailed throughout the game, behind by 8 points at halftime 45-37. They needed to fire right from the start of the third frame to get themselves close to Bulls, which they successfully did, courtesy of a 12-4 run to make it 49 all.
A well fought third quarter ended with Bulls again ahead, but just by 57-53.
Bulls changed gears in the final quarter and rattled a crucial 8-3 run in the opening minutes to boost the lead to 9 points 65-56. This time, Wizards failed to make a comeback and the pressure of the deficit slowed them further and eventually broke them
down. The margin of the loss thus became exaggerated in the end.
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