Wizards at Bulls
The Washington Wizards worked hard over the final week of the regular season to jump into the No. 5 spot in the Eastern Conference. Their reward for that strong finish is a date with the fourth-seeded Chicago Bulls, who will host Game 1 of the best-of-seven set on Sunday. The Bulls led the league in scoring defense and have one of the best defensive and offensive forces in the league in the middle in center Joakim Noah.
Chicago’s season was supposed to go into a tailspin when Derrick Rose was lost due to a knee injury but Noah emerged not just as the anchor to the defense but as a facilitator in the post while leading the team in assists. Countering Noah’s presence in the middle for the Wizards will be Marcin Gortat, who finished the season with three straight double-doubles and forms a strong pick-and-roll duo with point guard John Wall. “I think we have a lot of confidence,” Washington guard Bradley Beal told reporters. “We’re happy where we’re at and how we’re playing. It’s a great feeling , knowing you’ll continue to play and you’re not going home.”
TV: 7 p.m. ET, TNT, CSN Mid-Atlantic (Washington), CSN Chicago
ABOUT THE WIZARDS (44-38): Washington is appearing in the playoffs for the first time since the 2007-2008 season and could have finished as low as seventh before winning four straight to close the regular season and jumping to No. 5 in the final game. Beal scored 27 points in the 118-102 win over the Boston Celtics in the finale and put up an average of 21 in the final four games to boost his season mark to 17.1. The Wizards took two of three from the Bulls in the regular season but dropped the last meeting, 96-78 at home on April 5. “Mindset is to go in there and win the series,” coach Randy Wittman told reporters. “That’s the mindset you should have. We’ve played this team the last two years extremely well. We are 2-1 against them this year. They came in and smacked us pretty good last game so that should be a good fresh wound on our guys.”
ABOUT THE BULLS (48-34): Noah put up 21 points and 12 rebounds in the April 5 meeting and finished the season with 11 straight double-doubles, including one of the points-assists variety, one rebounds-assists effort and one triple-double. The multi-purpose threat picked up the team after Rose’s injury and the trade of leading-scorer Luol Deng. “A hard season,” Noah told reporters. “We worked our (butts) off. … We feel like overall we gave everything we had. … Now the playoffs is the icing on the cake. As competitors, that’s what you want; you want to play in the playoffs. I’m really proud to be part of this team.” Noah got plenty of help from D.J. Augustin, who scored 25 points in the win over Washington and averaged 19.4 points in April.
BUZZER BEATERS
1. Bulls G Jimmy Butler played 45 minutes or more in four of the final five regular-season games and will be part of the defensive effort against Wall and Beal.
2. Wall averaged 20.7 points and eight assists in the three meetings with Chicago.
3. Beal went 10-for-22 from 3-point range over the final four games.