The Chicago Bulls were down their top three scorers but were still able to get past the Washington Wizards with a score of 97-92. With this victory the Bulls split the season series at two apiece, each team winning one game on each other’s court.

Chicago had five players in double-figure scoring, three of which scored 20-plus points. Nikola Mirotic came off the bench and led the Bulls in scoring with 23 points on 6-of-13 shooting. Mirotic also grabbed eight rebounds and went 8-of-11 from the free throw line. Aaron Brooks started in place of Derrick Rose and scored 22 points while dishing out eight assists.

The frontcourt duo of Pau Gasol and Joakim Noah dominated their matchup tonight as they outplayed the Wizards frontcourt players on both sides of the ball. Pau Gasol recorded his league-leading 39th double-double of the season with 20 points and 10 rebounds. Joakim Noah did a little bit of everything tonight. Just like Gasol he recorded a double-double with 14 points and 12 rebounds. Noah also dished out five assists, blocked three shots, and recorded two steals.

Pau Gasol spoke on the team victory, “We’re a resilient team. We compete and try to do our best on the floor. It just shows character.”

John Wall led the Wizards with 21 points, 11 assists, two blocks, and two steals. It may have been Wall’s 33rd double-double of the season but the All-Star didn’t shoot the ball well (8-of-20 FG, 4-of-7 FT), and he turned the ball over six times. His backcourt mate Bradley Beal struggled shooting the ball as he shot 6-of-18 from the field including 0-of-5 from behind the arc for 13 points. Paul Pierce added 16 points while knocking down four three-pointers, and Otto Porter Jr. came off the bench scoring 11 points.

Marcin Gortat racked up another double-double for Washington as he scored 12 points while grabbing 12 rebounds. This is Gortat’s sixth straight game with double-digit rebounds, and in four of those games he recorded a double-double. His teammate on the block Nene wasn’t as lucky tonight. The veteran big fouled out in only 20 minutes of play. Nene grabbed six rebounds and didn’t score a single point on only four field goal attempts. One those fouls for Nene were a flagrant as he club Joakim Noah as he made an attempt at the rim. The big Brazilian never got in a rhythm, and was frustrated all night with the officials on several boarder-line calls.

This was a pretty tight game from start to finish. Both teams shot a similar percentage from the field. Chicago shot 42.3 percent from the field while going 9-of-29 from behind the arc (31 percent), while Washington shot 41.7 percent from the field while going 8-of-22 from behind the arc (36.4 percent). The Wizards had the advantage in every other category except two, rebounding and free throw shooting. Chicago had the advantage on the glass 47-to-39 and on the free throw line going 22-of-30 as opposed to 14-of-19 by Washington.

Washington took their first lead in the start of the second quarter when Otto Porter drained a corner three to give the Wizards a 25-24 advantage. The lead traded back and forth but the Bulls had a 51-44 lead at halftime. Chicago extended their lead to 10 in the third quarter, but luckily John Wall hit a buzzer-beater three before the quarter ended to only be down seven. The Wizards went into a scoring drought as they made their first field goal of the fourth with 9:03 remaining. At the 4:22 mark the Bulls built their lead to 10 again but Washington answered with a 13-5 run. With 1:49 left the Bulls only had 94-91 lead thanks to an Otto Porter running jumper. The deciding play came with 55 seconds left and Bradley Beal missed a wide open three-pointer that would have tied the game. Beal couldn’t knock down open shots all night.

Bradley Beal had this to say after the game, “The game was lost in a variety of ways. Just bad possessions and I feel like I had a lot of open shots that I should have made, which could have put us in a better position to win the game.”

The Washington Wizards next game is Friday night at home against the Miami Heat at 7:00 PM EST. The Chicago Bulls will stay home and face the Oklahoma City Thunder on Thursday night at 8:00 PM EST on TNT.