Preview: Bulls at Wizards

[March 17, 2017]  The Washington Wizards were one of the hottest teams in the league before hitting a bit of a skid with back-to-back losses. The Wizards will try to rebound at the expense of a team battling for the No. 8 spot in the Eastern Conference when they host the Chicago Bulls on Friday.

Washington climbed into the No. 2 spot in the East with a recent four-game winning streak but dropped back to 1 1/2 games behind the Boston Celtics with losses to sub-.500 teams Minnesota and Dallas in the last two contests. "We still got to get back to playing our style of defense," shooting guard Bradley Beal told the Washington Post after the Wizards allowed the Mavericks to shoot 50.6 percent from the floor in a 112-107 loss on Wednesday, "because we’re going to get killed if we keep playing like this." The Bulls thought they had turned a corner with a 115-109 win at Charlotte on Monday but dropped right back down on Wednesday with a 98-91 home loss to Memphis - their sixth setback in the last seven games. Chicago failed to reach 100 points in any of those six losses and trails Detroit and Miami by one game in the race for the No. 8 spot.

TV: 7 p.m. ET, NBATV, CSN Chicago, CSN Mid-Atlantic (Washington)

ABOUT THE BULLS (32-36): Chicago's stars are struggling from the floor and Jimmy Butler and Dwyane Wade combined to go 7-of-27 in Wednesday's loss. Wade was limited to just 23 minutes before leaving with an elbow injury that will require an MRI exam on Thursday. "I've got to get an MRI (Thursday) morning and see what it is," Wade told reporters. "I just got caught up going up for a rebound with Zach (Randolph) and one of our big guys, got caught up there in the mix of stuff and heard a couple of pops. I knew it was something a little bit more, just because of what I heard. I tried to play through it a little bit, until the pain started getting more excruciating."

ABOUT THE WIZARDS (41-26): Washington allowed the Timberwolves to shoot 52.3 percent from the field in Monday's 117-104 setback and gave up 39 points in the fourth quarter on Wednesday. Beal, who combined with All-Star John Wall to score 50 points against Dallas, suggested a solution to the defensive issues. "Might need coach to cuss us out one more time, man," Beal said, according to the Washington Post. "That might be what we need but I think we’re good, it’s just a matter of us realizing what’s at stake. We’ve got to look at the big picture again, we’ve got to look at the seeding where we are."

BUZZER BEATERS

1. Bulls PG Rajon Rondo is averaging 18.5 points in the last two games - up from a season mark of 7.1.

2. Wizards SG Bojan Bogdanovic went 3-of-4 from 3-point range after hitting a combined 3-of-17 in the previous four contests.

3. Washington took two of the first three meetings this season, including a 101-99 home win in the most recent matchup on Jan. 10.

PREDICTION: Wizards 112, Bulls 99

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