Bulls vs. Wizards final score: Bulls pull away for afternoon victory over play-in rival

It was an ugly daytime game of basketball in Chicago today, but the Bulls pulled it together and steadily extended a 4th quarter lead to ultimately win by a 102-82 margin over the Washington Wizards.

That’s a correct score, the Wiz scored only 82 points in a 2023 NBA game. The Bulls witchcraft defense that has been going on for the past couple months now continued here as Washington shot 6-28 (21.4%) from three and 12-23 (52.2%) from the free throw line.

Nobody outside of Arturas Karnisovas thinks this team’s defense is actually that good, though they did have a couple things going for them in this one besides luck. For one thing, the Wizards stink. And they didn’t have Kristaps Porzingis so Bradley Beal (who always stinks against the Bulls, it seems) had even more responsibility and the Bulls do have good point-of-attack defenders in the starting lineup now with Alex Caruso and Patrick Beverley. That doesn’t explain why Kyle Kuzma shot 4-18 though.

For the Bulls, offensively they were their typical iso-heavy 2-point reliant selves. They were only a bit better than the Wiz from distance, going 8-30 (26.7%). But Zach LaVine and DeMar DeRozan each made a ton of midrange jumpers, with Nikola Vucevic easily dumping in several jump hooks as well. After a few early cough-ups they finished the game with merely 8 turnovers (counter with Washington’s 16).

The win gives them two since the All-Star break after they headed into the break on that miserable 6 game losing streak. This was over a team they’re fighting with for a play-in spot, though the Bulls are technically still out of it at a half game behind. Looking at the competition today though, it doesn’t look like it’ll take too much to get in that play-in tournament. That’s why the NBA created it!