Deng may sit with tendinitis
The Bulls went 0-3 in November when Luol Deng was out with a sore back. Now it looks like Deng will miss more time because tendinitis in his left Achilles.
The team's second-leading scorer did not play after halftime of Thursday's loss to Portland. He watched Friday's practice with ice wrapped around his left leg and went for an MRI exam later in the afternoon.
"Lu said when it gets warm, he's usually pretty good with it," coach Jim Boylan said at the Berto Center. "Yesterday on one play, he jumped and he could feel it down there. That's always a little scary. You're dealing with your Achilles and you definitely don't want to do anything that's going to rupture that thing and you're out for the rest of the season."
This might actually be a good time for Deng to take some rest. He could sit out a full week and miss only home games against Sacramento and New York. Thabo Sefolosha is also unlikely to play tonight against the Kings with a sprained right ankle.
Deng's natural replacement is Andres Nocioni, who remains stuck in a shooting slump. During the past nine games, Nocioni is averaging 8.7 points and shooting 30.5 percent. In the first 22 games of the season, he averaged 15.0 points and shot 45.1 percent.
"I just tell Noc to relax," Boylan said. "Noc really, really cares and when he doesn't play well it bothers him. I appreciate that. But at the same time, you have to relax and let your game be your game. That's what I've been trying to tell him is don't freak out over a bad game or a poor shooting night."
No doze nights: Jim Boylan is getting a crash course in being an NBA head coach. His first 2 losses have been overtime heartbreakers that could easily have gone the other way.
"It eats at you," he said. "You start thinking, 'Well, I should have done this. Maybe I could have done that. Oh, if we'd gotten that rebound or if the referee didn't make that call.' Especially in an overtime game, there are always 20 plays you look at and just wonder if you could have done something a little different or if the ball had bounced another way, maybe we could have gotten a win out of it.
"You always have trouble sleeping. I wake up in the middle of the night and wonder, 'Why am I waking up? Oh yeah, that game.' As an assistant it's a little bit easier, I've got to admit that. So it's a whole new world."
Smith sticks it out: Veteran forward Joe Smith has averaged 20.2 minutes this season but stayed on the court for 45 against Portland and delivered a season-high 31 points.
Smith missed time in preseason with a sore knee, so the Bulls planned on monitoring his playing time closely. On Friday, though, he had no worries.
"I'm a little sore today, but that comes with it," Smith said. "It's a good soreness. There's not anything wrong with my knee. It's just the body soreness that I'm kind of working with today. I think as long as my knee doesn't bother me, then I'm good."
Smith wasn't far from his career high of 38 points, which he set against Vancouver during his second NBA season back in 1996-97 while playing for Golden State.
Bull horns: The Bulls are 0-12 this season when giving up at least 100 points. … Against Portland, Aaron Gray did not play for the first time since Dec. 14. … Ben Wallace went 4-for-4 from the foul line during the two overtimes Thursday and has now hit 19 of 27 free throws since Dec. 7.