Brown’s knee OK according to MRI

The Wizards got a bit of good news last night when an MRI of power forward Kwame Brown’s bruised knee revealed no structural damage.

Brown had to be helped off the United Center floor late in the fourth quarter of the Wizards’ 103-94 loss to Chicago after Bulls forward Andres Nocioni fell hard against his leg.

Brown took part in half the team’s practice yesterday before leaving for the MRI. He seemed to be limping slightly.

Brown had a decent game Sunday, finishing with 13 points and nine rebounds. However, all his points came in the first half. He took just two shots after halftime.

Following the loss, Brown sounded more upset than anybody in the locker room. He wasn’t buying into the theory that the Wizards need to get over the defeat quickly.

“We have to let it hurt,” Brown said. “We have to look at tape and see what we did wrong.”

Part of that simply might be Antawn Jamison and Gilbert Arenas, who combined to shoot 9-for-34 from the floor in Game 1, being prepared to get the other players involved.

“Those guys are not going to have games like that this whole series, but they have to realize that [the Bulls] are going to key up on them,” Brown said. “They’ve been called the Big Three [with Larry Hughes] all year. I’m sure all the scouting tapes have been geared toward stopping them. So there are going to be guys like myself, guys like Juan [Dixon] who are coming off the bench that will be able to take the pressure of them. They’ve got to realize that early and then get it going for themselves late.”

Ruffin ready for old mates

Michael Ruffin, who missed the first game of the playoffs with a sore foot, likely will play tomorrow.

The 6-foot-8 Ruffin, who does more of the Wizards’ dirty work than any other player, spent his first two seasons with the Bulls, who drafted him with the 32nd pick overall in 1999.

Ruffin could be vital for the Wizards in terms of matching elbows with the physical Nocioni.

“I don’t see it as a matchup of me against him,” Ruffin said. “I just want to get out there and play and help us win. I’m not looking at anything from an individual standpoint.”

However, his teammates look forward to the wrestling match.

“You have to throw one of your wolves on him,” Arenas said. “And he’s our wolf.”

Bulls: We’re not dirty

CHICAGO — Gilbert Arenas’ pre-series assertion that the Bulls “have a couple of dirty players” continues to generate buzz in Chicago. Local columnists bashed Arenas — essentially calling him a crybaby — and even Bulls vice president of basketball operations John Paxson took issue.

“A lot of this is just posturing,” he said. “There are a couple of teams that late in the year tried to make that claim. I totally refute that. No one likes somebody who is just playing hard on them every possession, every second of the game. That’s the kind of guys we have. It is an unfair characterization.”

Presumably, one of the “dirty players” in question was Game 1 star Andres Nocioni, who two weeks ago was suspended for one game for throwing an elbow at Detroit’s Tayshaun Prince.

“I thought Andres got suspended for a game on something that was absolutely unintentional,” Paxson said. “I will fight that characterization of Andres and our team forever. We’re not a dirty team.”

Chicago guard Chris Duhon echoed Paxson’s sentiments.

“[Nocioni] is just one of those guys,” he said. “Eight times out of 10 he doesn’t know [a play is rough]. He just plays.”