Del Negro lets Hughes play final 16 minutes
In his second game back from a dislocated right shoulder, Larry Hughes stayed on the floor for 22 minutes Saturday against Indiana, finishing with 12 points and 3 steals.
Hughes played in the game's final 16 minutes as coach Vinny Del Negro decided to leave Luol Deng on the bench late and use Hughes at small forward. Deng hit just 4 of 16 shots but did a nice job on Pacers leading scorer Danny Granger (4-for-15, 15 points).
"Larry has the versatility," Del Negro said. "He can handle the ball a little bit for us when Ben (Gordon) is in there. He can play the three, depending on the matchups. I just thought we had a nice rhythm. I was going to put Lu back in with about five or six minutes (left). But we got some steals, got some momentum and when you get momentum, it's a valuable thing and you have to let guys ride it out."
Noah stays a starter: Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro gave Joakim Noah another start Saturday, even though in the previous two games Noah played just four minutes against Dallas and was worked over by Atlanta's Al Horford.
Noah was decent against Indiana, finishing with 8 rebounds and 5 points in 22 minutes. The Bulls had trouble keeping the Pacers off the offensive glass early in the second half, which prompted a call to Aaron Gray.
"He has such a high energy, I think he wears himself out a little bit with that," Del Negro said of Noah. "His eye injury (in preseason) set him back a little bit. He's getting in better condition all the time. If he's being productive out there and doing the right things, he'll play more."
"It's nothing really that he's done bad. I just think the matchups are better for him (against Indiana). There's no 'hidden message' there or anything, it's just what we feel we need to do."
Rotation details: Lindsey Hunter made his Bulls debut Saturday, playing the final 58.9 seconds of the contest. Thabo Sefolosha, who didn't play Thursday with Larry Hughes back from injury, had a brief five-minute run.
Tyrus Thomas was the odd man out in the frontcourt, playing just six minutes total. Demetris Nichols has been inactive since Hunter became the 15th player on the roster.
Tax avoidance plan: Even though the addition of Lindsey Hunter pushed the team payroll past the luxury tax threshold, the Bulls plan to make some moves to avoid paying the tax this year. It's not clear what those moves will be, but the Bulls have two players, Demetris Nichols and Michael Ruffin, whose contracts are not fully guaranteed.
Bull horns: Derrick Rose is the first Bulls rookie since Michael Jordan to score at least 10 points in his first 10 games. No, Marcus Fizer, Khalid El-Amin and Mark Randall never did it. ... The Bulls were outrebounded 59-48 by the Pacers. Andres Nocioni led the Bulls with 11 rebounds.