The Washington Wizards were originally scheduled to play 15 games on national television, but it looks like they’ll get more attention than anticipated.

According to ESPN (press release), the match up between the Atlanta Hawks and Boston Celtics on January 14th has been replaced by the Washington Wizards and Chicago Bulls:

ESPN announced today seven new NBA game selections to its current regular-season schedule, including the Washington Wizards at Chicago Bulls in an Eastern Conference showdown on Wednesday, Jan. 14, at 8 p.m. ET.

The Wizards will take on the Chicago Bulls tomorrow night at home. That game, as well as the one on January 14th, will be on national television.

Given how well the Hawks have played over the past several weeks, I’m surprised that ESPN decided to bump their game off national television.

Still, I think people will be a lot more excited to watch the Wizards and Bulls match up.

The two teams matched up in the first round of last year’s NBA Playoffs. Washington went on to beat Chicago in just five games before eventually losing to the Indiana Pacers in the semi-finals.

Both teams appear to be healthy this time, though. I don’t want to take any credit away from the Wizards for beating Chicago, especially since they were the lower seed, but the Bulls are a different team with Derrick Rose, Pau Gasol, and Jimmy Butler, who’s become one of the best swingmen in basketball.

The Bulls are coming off a 20 point loss to the Utah Jazz, while the Wizards coasted to a victory against the lowly New York Knicks last night.

Chicago and Washington have been inconsistent this season and have to find ways to break that habit.

Prior to the beginning of the season, many NBA pundits had the Bulls ranked as the number one team in the East, with the Wizard just slightly behind. That hasn’t been the case, though, as the Hawks and Toronto Raptors are sitting atop the conference.

The John Wall-Derrick Rose match up is always intriguing and the two always get the best out of each other. Besides Russell Westbrook, Rose and Wall are the two most athletic point guards in the league, which will certainly cause excitement for fans all over.

Wall is currently leading all Eastern Conference guards in All-Star votes. He’ll have a chance to get even more recognition tomorrow night and on Jan. 14th against the Chicago Bulls.

Let’s hope the Washington Wizards make the most of this opportunity.