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Wednesday, Apr. 11 7:00pm ET
Wizards left feeling like there's no excuse

RECAP | BOX SCORE | GAME FLOW

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Chicago Bulls were just a little less awful than the Washington Wizards, enough to end a franchise-record 25-game road losing streak and become royalty for a day.

The Bulls beat the Wizards 113-109 Wednesday night, their first victory on the road since a 104-86 triumph at Boston on Dec. 13.

"All in all, we're still a horrible, horrible team, but we got the win," Chicago forward Ron Artest said. "I'm happy to go home and go out. When we get a win, it's like winning the championship back in Chicago. We can lose 50 in a row and get one win and be king, so we can go home and be king."

Imagine, then, how the Wizards feel.

"You look at their record," Washington forward Loy Vaught said, "all the rookies they have, all the young players, you feel like there's not a real good excuse you can come up with why you should lose a game like this, especially at home."

The Bulls are 3-36 on the road all season, their only other victory away from the United Center coming at Atlanta on Nov. 30.

Elton Brand scored 26 points and grabbed 11 rebounds and thwarted the Wizards' last chance by intercepting an inbounds pass with three seconds left. He led five Chicago players in double figures as the Bulls, for at least one more game, postponed clinching a new low for season winning percentage.

Chicago (13-65), still needs to win its last four to match its worst-ever 17-65 record of last year.

The Wizards, losing their sixth consecutive game and fourth in a row at home, are headed toward their own mark of futility. If they lose their remaining four games, their 18-64 record will be worse than the 18-62 mark set by the first-year Chicago Packers in 1961-62, two years before the franchise moved to the Baltimore-Washington area.

The game pitted Michael Jordan's awful former team against his awful present one, with rumors abounding Jordan will step down as Wizards president of basketball operations and return as a player. One sign summed up a Bulls fan's feelings: "Hey M.J., Chicago says stop this foolishness and come back home."

Jordan himself wasn't at the game, letting stand his assertion that he's "99 percent sure" he'll never play again.

Rookie Courtney Alexander scored a career-high 28 points, and Richard Hamilton added 25 points for the Wizards. All five Washington starters scored in double figures.

Marcus Fizer scored 21 points on 10-for-14 shooting, and Artest had 17 points and a career-high nine assists for the Bulls.

Vaught, who had only 32 total points in 11 games since joining the Wizards on Feb. 22, scored all eight of his points in the fourth quarter. His baseline jumper with 35.2 seconds remaining put the Wizards ahead 109-108, their first lead since the first quarter.

But Fizer tipped in Brand's miss with 20.5 seconds left. Vaught was given a chance to win the game, but he missed another baseline jumper with seven seconds remaining.

Jamal Crawford then made one of two free throws with 4.3 seconds left to put Chicago up 111-109. Washington had one last chance, but Brand picked off Laron Profit's inbounds pass and fed Crawford for a breakaway dunk at the final buzzer.

"We had four guys out on the floor late who should still be in college," Chicago coach Tim Floyd said. "I thought they played with a lot more poise than they could have early in the season."

With neither team playing much defense, the game was a scorefest of alternating runs. The Bulls led by as many as 15 in the second quarter, but the Wizards tied the game once in the third quarter and twice in the fourth before Vaught finally gave them a brief lead.

Washington shot a season-high 63 percent from the field, but committed 23 turnovers. Chicago shot 54 percent and had 15 turnovers. Of the game's 222 points, 126 were scored in the paint.

Game notes
Wizards forward Christian Laettner missed the game with the flu. ... Bulls center Brad Miller sat out with a sore right knee. Swingman Ron Mercer didn't make the trip because of tendinitis in his right ankle. ... Miller's injury allowed rookie Jake Voshkuhl to make his first career start, but he played only 12 minutes and scored four points. ... Profit had a career-high 14 assists. ... The game was delayed briefly in the second quarter when one of the 24-second clocks started skipping odd numbers, going from 24 to 22 to 20, etc. Substitute clocks were found and placed on the floor at each end.

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RECAPS
Miami 102
Boston 97

Chicago 113
Washington 109

Atlanta 107
Cleveland 102

Detroit 99
Toronto 87

Indiana 100
New York 93

Phoenix 111
Dallas 106

Seattle 107
Golden State 101


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