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Wizards don't take Bulls by the horns, lose again

The Wizards lost to the Chicago Bulls, as Otto Porter falls asleep on the final defensive possession. Also, we look at whether the Wizards can turn things around in March -- or even make it out of the month alive.

By Ryan Gracia Mar 4, 2015, 9:57am EST

1. Rose-less/Butler-less/Gibson-less Bulls beat Wizards, 97-92

They could have clinched the season series with Chicago with a win Tuesday night but instead lost the game and the season tiebreaker. So, the misery continues as the Wizards lose another game to another Eastern Conference contender.

Here are your recaps from the loss:

2. Bulls may be getting inside Nene's head

Per J. Michael of CSN:

Nene can't allow what he perceives as the lack of respect from officials to impact his play. He had more fouls (six) than points (zero) and allowed Joakim Noah to get under his skin. Since last year's playoff series, won by Washington in five games, Nene has been ejected, suspended, suspended, hit with a flagrant foul and now fouled out. The only hope the Bulls have of neutralizing him is to get him out of sync like this and they were successful.

3. OTTO!!

And to think that I had just praised him on Twitter for getting late-game minutes after another solid outing, he went and did this...

Yes, he forced Marcin Gortat to step out onto Tony Snell. Yes, it took Gortat away from the basket, allowing Pau Gasol to beat Garrett Temple for the rebound. Yes, it cost the Wizards any chance of hitting a game-tying three-pointer in the final seconds of the game to force overtime.

No, Randy Wittman should not have went small with the game on the line and the Bulls featuring a lineup of Gasol, Joakim Noah, and Nikola Mirotic. Once again, Wittman = zero, opposing coach = one.

(And no, Porter didn't cost them the game, either. Nene, Gortat, Kevin Seraphin, and Drew Gooden attempting ZERO free throws along with some more horrifically poor ball movement or ability to stop a usual-backup point guard lost them the game.)

4. Paul Pierce dealing with sore right knee

Pierce is old. And old people have pains. Pierce deals with a lot of day-to-day old man pains, but his most recent dilemma is a sore knee. He battles through a lot of things but boy, I'm not sure how he is going to make it another season with all the things he has dealt with this season...

5. Meaningful March

They've already started the month on a bad note, but things can still be turned around, right? Let's hope so. Eight of the 12 teams they'll face this month are playoff teams. The others? They've got a history of giving the Wizards trouble.