Rose, Bulls Dominate Wizards

“We fought hard till the end,” said Nick Young after the Wizards loss to the Chicago Bulls.

The Wizards knew they were going against a great team in Chicago and one of the premiere defensive teams in the NBA.

Considering the state of rebuild the Wizards are currently in, there won’t be many wins. But in the case of a loss, they should always go down swinging.

A great example is how they performed against the Bulls last night.  Giving effort in itself is worth the price of admission.  If you don’t give effort, people will boo like Andray Blatche.

If the Wiz Kids can learn anything from this game, it is that tough nose defense can win you many games and also win some respect around the league.  Nick Young explained it best, “It was a tough task for us because they are a great team and have really great defenders. It will always be a challenge with them.”

They say defense wins championships. Hopefully the Wizards learned a thing or two by watching and playing a championship contender.

Random Notes:

• Who can hate Coach Randy Wittman honestly? Check out his post game press conference.  He’s so real and blunt.  Who can hate that about a coach?

• Nick Young wanted people to know that he wants to be in the 3 point contest.  And I don’t approve this message.
• The number of people who come to the game and cheer for the opposite team is sickening.  Wizards fans need to come out to every home game possible and start cheering shamelessly.

 

Here are some of the quotes from the Wizards and Bulls locker rooms, courtesy of the Wizards PR department:

WASHINGTON WIZARDS VS. CHICAGO BULLS

JANUARY 30, 2012

BULLS 98, WIZARDS 88

WIZARDS HEAD COACH RANDY WITTMAN

On the game:

“As I told my team, there is no fault in the effort of play for us tonight. We played against a very good basketball team.  I felt good when I saw we were only shooting 30% from the field and only down 11 points. It goes without a question that Derrick Rose had an amazing game as well. In the fourth quarter, I was a little hesitant to go with the defensive strategy of a full court press because we never worked on it. I looked to the guys on the bench and told them this is a chance for us to steal this ball game. They stayed in the ball game and my heart goes out to those guys; they are one exhausted bunch and left it on the floor. I can’t ask for anything else from my team.”

On the Bulls:

“This is the best team that we have seen this season. They have the right guys to put around Rose. Kyle Korver goes for 14 points in the first half and we lost discipline of who that guy was in the corner. You have to distinguish between who the shooters on the team are and who aren’t. They are very good.”

On Derrick Rose:

“First and foremost he is an outstanding player. He made tough shots. There was just nothing you could do. When he made shots over our big men with his runner, he leaves you no choice but to try different things. He also creates a lot of plays for his teammates.”

On our pressure defense:

“Our pressure has been good. We haven’t been able to work on our five-guy full court press. I do have my point guards defending 84 to 94 feet from the basket. (Trevor)Booker has the ability to cover a lot of ground and I thought he did a heck of a job trying to get the ball out of Rose’s hands early. We pressured (Joakim) Noah and the other guys to make a play. We will come in tomorrow and break that down.”

 

WIZARDS FORWARD TREVOR BOOKER

On the game:

“Coach wanted us to stay positive and I think as a team we had a positive reaction from that. They want me to focus on defense, and I’ll do anything to get the job done.”

 

On Derrick Rose:

“A few times I caught myself just watching the shots he was taking because they are really unbelievable. He is definitely at the top of the league. He is a tough player and to be able to watch him in person was great. I watch him on TV, but actually playing against him and watching some of the things he does is crazy. He was able to split the trap a lot and I wish we could have done a better job of guarding him, but he definitely hit some really tough shots.”

 

WIZARDS GUARD JOHN WALL

On Derrick Rose:

"He did a great job in getting them into their pick and roll.  He got the ball to their big men and was also able to get to the free throw line and hit his shots. He made big plays all night."

 

On the game:

"The Bulls are a great defensive team, especially in their half court set. We struggled shooting the ball tonight. We were down 22 points, but we didn't get down and just played hard and fought back."

WIZARDS GUARD NICK YOUNG

On the Bulls:

“It was a tough task for us because they are a great team and have really great defenders. It will always be a challenge with them. We knew they had a tough loss last night and were going to come out hard today. We fought until the end but I am definitely going to give them credit for how they fought as well.”

 

On Andray Blatche being out:

“It’s going to be tough without Dray. He is a big part of our team but we just have to hope he gets better soon and comes back. In the meantime, we just have to let Booker do his thing. He has been playing really well, so hopefully we can still keep up the pace.”

 

BULLS HEAD COACH TOM THIBODEAU

On Derrick Rose:

“He set the tone for us. I think he’s feeling a lot better. When he comes out like that it’s his will. He imposes his will on everybody and he made us very aggressive. As a team everyone did a good job being ready to play which I thought would be critical for this game.

 

On the Wizards’ late run:

“Playing from a lead was so important for us because we had to withstand that rush at the end. Because we had that cushion, it allowed us to take the hit and still finish the game and win…You’ve got to give them credit. They are long, athletic, quick and were rested. The challenge for us was to be ready to play.”

 

On the Wizards:

“I thought their rebounding was a big plus for them. (John) Wall was also very aggressive to start the game and (Nick) Young hit some shots late. They’re very athletic. I thought Joakim (Noah) did a nice job of making plays defensively and we got solid contributions from a number of guys. I thought it was a good win for us.”

 

BULLS CENTER JOAKIM NOAH

On playing the pick and role:

“They had to trap D-Rose (Derrick Rose) because he was doing whatever he wanted. He was attacking the bigs and scoring. Then when they started to blitz him and other things opened up for us. I just tried to put pressure on the defense and make the right decision. It’s easy offense for us.”

 

On Derrick Rose:

“He came up huge as usual. We’re not worried about this guy. He is the ultimate competitor and he came to play tonight. He always does. We win and lose by that guy, and most of the time we are going to win.”

On recovering from yesterday’s game:

“We played an emotional game yesterday. We played really hard in a hostile environment. It was important for everyone to come ready to play. We know everyone was going to come ready to play yesterday, but it was important for us to be mentally tough and be ready to play tonight.”

 

BULLS GUARD DERRICK ROSE

On the win:

“It definitely feels good. I think we came out and played hard and took their confidence early.”

 

On Kyle Korver:

“He played great. He played great defense, didn’t get in foul trouble and was knocking down shots like he’s supposed to. We just kept trying to find him.”

 

On the Bulls’ third-quarter run:

“We stayed aggressive. That’s the biggest thing. I think usually in the third quarter we tend to back off a bit but this game we kept going. We were trying to make the game easy and that’s how we have to win.”

 

On the team’s play over the past several games:

“We’re playing well. We’re down a couple of players. We definitely miss them, but there are no excuses when you’re in the NBA. You still have to go out there and play these games. We’re just playing team basketball.”

 

On bouncing back from the loss to Miami:

“I woke up this morning and yesterday’s game was out of my mind. I just wanted to come out here and play aggressive. They have a good young team that likes to get out in transition. Everyone just stuck to the game plan.”