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Empty the Bench with some love for DeShawn.

Highest Plus/Minus: Darius Songaila (+26)
Lowest Plus/Minus: Nick Young (-7)

I should preface this by saying that at the start of the season that I had the Bulls and the Mavericks in the Finals, so if this comes off especially abrasive towards Chicago, that's probably just me.

• Am I the only one that thinks Brendan was thinking about this while he was going for 25 and 10 last night?  Granted. all the key players from that tussle are gone, but still.
  
• Jamison's absence the last few games has allowed me to more or less confirm what I've been feeling the last few weeks: Darius has turned into a poor man's Antawn Jamison, not quite as much range and not quite as good of a rebounder, but their games are similar enough to keep things stable when Jamison is out of the lineup.
• I don't want to panic too early, but Nick Young has really been off the last couple of games.  Blatche looks like he's finally making his way out of the doghouse, the last thing we need is for someone else to take that vacancy.
  
• Guess which Bulls player had the highest plus/minus?  Aaron Gray.
• I want to say that the Wizards 3 point defense was better last night holding the Bulls to 7 of 18 from beyond the arc, but I think Tyrus Thomas' three-pointer (the first of his career!) pretty much negates all of that.

Of course, the important thing from last night is that the Wizards stuck it out without Gilbert and Antawn, got the W, and now they've got a full game lead over 6th place.  The game against Philly still looms large but at least now the Boston and Detroit games don't look as imposing.  The Celtics rested their Big 3 last night and now that they've clinched homecourt throughout the playoffs, I doubt they'll be much of a factor on Wednesday and the same is probably true for the Pistons who are pretty firmly entrenched in the 2 spot.  They still can't take any of the last 5 games for granted, but the road looks smoother now than it did before.  If they can avoid playing down to their opponent like they did against Milwaukee, they should be fine.