Gordon hopes to return Saturday
MINNEAPOLIS -- Offensive first aid may be coming for the Bulls.
Leading scorer Ben Gordon said his sprained right wrist felt better and expressed optimism that he will be 100 percent with two more days of rest and be able to return Saturday at Sacramento.
Veteran forward Joe Smith is expected to join the team in Sacramento after skipping the two games against Minnesota with an illness.
But Luol Deng is not ready to test his sore left Achilles and wrote in a blog on NBA.com that there is only a slight chance he will play during the six-game road trip that began with Wednesday's loss in Minnesota.
The Bulls managed to win twice while Gordon and Deng were sidelined, but they scored less than 80 points in the other three contests.
In the 83-67 loss to the Timberwolves, the Bulls set a season low for points and tied their season low for field-goal percentage (33.3).
"It's kind of been the story of the season so far," guard Kirk Hinrich said. "Have one good game, then follow it up with a bad one. It's hard to gain any ground when you do that."
Khryapa cools off: Forward Viktor Khryapa got another chance at meaningful playing time Wednesday, but he didn't do much with it. He scored 2 points in 13 minutes, a day after recording 11 points against Minnesota.
Before the game, Bulls coach Jim Boylan was asked why Khryapa has seen so little playing time this season, even when forwards Luol Deng and Andres Nocioni have missed time with injuries.
"In the past, we've had a little bit of a problem finding minutes for Viktor and him staying within what we were trying to get done," Boylan said. "So when that happened, he kind of fell out of the rotation a little bit.
"Viktor's a versatile player. There are a lot of things that he can bring to us, and so we'll try to look at him and see if he can help our team."
No help for defense: Jim Boylan was particularly critical of the Bulls' refusal to play any help defense after halftime against Minnesota center Al Jefferson, who scored 19 points of his 26 in the second half.
"Quite honestly, our help defense was terrible in the second half," Boylan said. "If you don't help on a guy like that, he's going to score, and we fell asleep on the perimeter for the entire second half. It was one of our worst defensive help second halves I've seen in a long, long time."
Bull horns: Peter Tedeschi, father of Bulls trainer Fred Tedeschi, died Tuesday in Calistoga, Calif. Fred Tedeschi will be away from the team indefinitely. … Following Tuesday's home game, the Bulls drove to the airport in near white-out conditions. The temperature when they landed in Minneapolis was minus-13.