Wizards lose ninth straight home game

The last time the Chicago Bulls came to Verizon Center, Andray Blatche and JaVale McGee gleefully celebrated an emotional victory by repeatedly running and jumping into each other. The Washington Wizards appeared to be riding high on Feb. 22, as they had just won for the third time in four games after remaking the roster at the all-star break.

But the Wizards have yet to feel that way again in this building. On Friday night, the Wizards set a franchise record by losing their ninth consecutive home game, 95-87, to the Bulls before 18,002. They surpassed the previous mark of eight straight home losses, set by the 1966-67 Baltimore Bullets.

"It's rough. I want to get a win," said point guard Shaun Livingston, who has never won at Verizon Center since signing with the Wizards on Feb. 26. "A win is a win to me, anywhere. But got to shoot for the next game."

The Wizards (22-52) will host the lowly New Jersey Nets on Sunday, hoping to snap their skid. But they will have no chance at winning if they have another fourth quarter like Friday, when they shot just 2 for 16 from the floor and failed to make a field goal in the final 4 minutes 26 seconds. Coach Flip Saunders said his players got "selfish" down the stretch.

"It's difficult because we have so many young players," Saunders said. "It's kind of like an avalanche. What happens is, when one guy [shoots] and they don't think they are going to get a play and the next guy that touches it [takes a shot]. We become very selfish."

The problems were magnified because the Wizards had difficulty making shots. Andray Blatche scored a team-high 18 points but he missed 13 of his 20 field goal attempts. Nick Young had 10 points but shot 2 for 13.

"For me, I just started missing early and I tried to rush stuff," Young said. "We don't like losing. Everybody wants to look good out there and do good out there. We're trying to learn from our mistakes."

The last victory over Chicago, though, was overshadowed by two injuries, from which the team has been unable to fully recover. Josh Howard's season came crashing to a screeching halt when he tore the anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee in the first quarter of that game.

Randy Foye later hurt his wrist while trying to defend Bulls point guard Derrick Rose. Although Foye attempted to play through the pain for nearly a month, he was mostly ineffective and lost his starting point guard job before eventually having to shut it down for the season. Before the game, Foye declared that he wouldn't return, with his left wrist encased in a cast that won't be removed until April 13 -- a day before the season finale against Indiana.

"It's definitely a disappointment," Foye said, "because I wanted to be out there with the guys to help them, give them a boost, help them win. I wanted to be a part of it. To be in a cast is frustrating for me. But luckily, it's my left wrist. I hail from this."

Friday's matchup also proved to be costly as reserve swingman Quinton Ross suffered a lower back contusion in the second period. Ross was hurt in a collision with Bulls reserve center Brad Miller, leaving Saunders with just 10 healthy players, including two players on 10-day contracts who have yet to practice with the team. Al Thornton missed his fifth consecutive game with a strained right hip flexor.

"We're a little bit undermanned at times," Saunders said.

The Wizards had just snapped a franchise-record 16-game losing streak in New Orleans and were trying to win consecutive games for the first time since defeating Minnesota and Denver on Feb. 17 and Feb. 19, respectively.

"We could've had a win tonight, but we didn't have the same sense of urgency, the same edge, the same discipline the same togetherness that we had in the two away games" against Houston and New Orleans, said Blatche, who also had 13 rebounds and seven assists. "We got home and forgot everything we've done on the road."

Rose led all scorers with 24 points and Taj Gibson had 14 points and 16 rebounds. The Bulls (36-39) are still holding on to faint playoff hopes, but they also got a huge lift from Luol Deng, who scored 14 points off the bench after missing the previous 11 games with a strained right calf.

"The teams stayed relatively close for most of the night. The Wizards opened the third period on an 11-4 run and took a 61-57 lead when Young buried a three-pointer from the right corner. They led 73-70 when McGee (13 points, nine rebounds) made a finger roll with 3:09 left in the quarter, but the Bulls scored the next six points before James Singleton made a jump hook to send the Wizards into the final period trailing 76-75.

Rose capped a 17-5 run when he caught a lob pass from Noah and dunked with two hands to give the Bulls an 87-78 lead. "We just ran out of gas," Saunders said.