"After his first game against Derrick Rose, John Wall left the United Center wearing a protective walking boot on his left foot. He strained the arch on his foot during an awkward landing after defending Rose on a jumper in the third period.

While Rose and his former Chicago Bulls teammate Kirk Hinrich joked with each other in front of the Wizards' locker room after the game, Wall was in the back getting treatment and having his foot taped up. Rose eventually got tired of waiting and left the arena around the time Wall slipped his left shoe into his backpack.

Wall hopes that his foot will feel better once he gets some rest, but he didn't want to leave the game on Saturday. "As much as I put pressure on it, it just got worse and worse," Wall said after scoring 16 points with six assists. "I just took myself out."

It was a difficult night for the Wizards, who lost to the Chicago Bulls 103-96, after an ill-fated rally inspired by the suddenly accurate Gilbert Arenas. In addition to Wall getting hurt, the Wizards also lost Yi Jianlian and Andray Blatche to knee injuries. Yi was taken out in the third period, when Wall took a charge on Luol Deng and fell directly on Yi's right knee.

Yi didn't move for several minutes, laying on the ground and simply holding his knee until he was assisted off the court by Kevin Seraphin and Hamady Ndiaye. After the game, Yi was able to smile with relief after the injury proved to be less serious than it initially felt. "It hurt right away, took a few minutes, cool down a little bit, felt a little bit better," said Yi, who had a bone bruise and a hyperextended right knee. "Ligament, MCL is fine."

As Yi spoke with Chinese reporters, Blatche pulled a protective sleeve over his left knee, which he said has been causing him discomfort all week. Blatche had his worst game of the season, missing eight of 10 shots, and scoring just four points with seven rebounds in little over 27 minutes. His knee started to swell up and he was unable to do much in a 4½-minute stint in the fourth quarter, when he didn't score or grab a rebound.

"I just tried to be a warrior. I tried to fight through it," Blatche said. "Tonight was the last night, it just gave out on me. All the pain came, in every different way. Soon as I got here, I knew it was going to be a problem."

The only reason the Wizards were able to stay in the game was primarily because of Arenas, who played with a carefree spirit and joy that had seemed absent through his first four games. Wall left with the Wizards trailing 67-50 in the third period and Arenas started to heat up. "