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player ready...The most significant aspect of the Bulls’ 98-82 exhibition victory over Boston on Wednesday night was Luol Deng’s absence in the second half.
Deng did not return for the third or fourth quarters because of a bruised right wrist–the same wrist that required surgery to repair a torn ligament last spring. The injury ended his rookie season in early April, and he spent the spring and summer on the mend.
“I twisted it a little bit,” Deng said. “I got hit on it. It’s nothing major. I could have played.”
Deng said he would practice Thursday, but Bulls trainer Fred Tedeschi said Deng would be evaluated in the morning before a decision was made.
“He wasn’t really happy with me,” Tedeschi said of Deng’s reaction to being pulled from the game. “I thought it was the smart thing to do.”
Tedeschi said the move was precautionary.
The Bulls have had their share of players miss time in the exhibition season, but Deng needs every minute he can get on the court. He is in only his first month of full-court scrimmaging since he sustained the injury, and his progress has been understandably slow but steady.
Deng played 17 minutes and went 1 of 6 from the field for two points.
“I’m not worried about him,” coach Scott Skiles said. “He was a little sore. I don’t know that I would have been played him anyway in the second half.”
Skiles found a lineup that pleased him in Andres Nocioni, Kasib Powell, Tyson Chandler, Kirk Hinrich and Eddie Basden. The Bulls trailed by 15 in the first quarter but chipped away at the deficit in the second quarter behind those players, and Skiles picked them to start the second half.
“I was looking for a lineup that could give the effort we needed,” he said. “Most pro games–I know it’s a cliche–come down to whoever plays the hardest. That group I had in there was playing very hard. I saw no reason to disrupt them.”
That meant limited minutes for Ben Gordon, who went 1 of 3 for two points. He played just 13 minutes, four fewer than Deng.
“I wanted to try to win the game,” Skiles said. “I was searching for a lineup that was going to play, especially on the defensive end, good enough for us to win. That’s what I normally do. That’s what I told the guys after the game.”
Michael Sweetney led the Bulls with 16 points to go with eight rebounds, and Hinrich scored 14.
Sweetney put the Bulls up for good 75-74 with a free throw in the final seconds of the third quarter.
Eric Piatkowski made his first appearance of the preseason, helping the Bulls hold off the Celtics in the fourth quarter. Piatkowski had been sidelined since last week because of a knee injury.
The Bulls improved to 2-3 in exhibition play. Both victories came against Boston, which is 1-3.
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