Joakim Noah almost had his season ruined by the plantar fasciitis injury he has battled for a good portion of the year, and it has almost ruined the Chicago Bulls playoff chances as well.  Noah returned on March 20th after missing 10 games, receiving very limited minutes.  His minutes have slowly increased over the past couple of weeks and Head coach Vinny Del Negro was monitoring them as recently as last Friday, where Noah missed some overtime action in a loss to the New Jersey Nets.  As Noah’s minutes have gone up, so has his production.  In six games this month, Noah is averaging 32.7 minutes, 13.3 points, 13.0 rebounds, 3.7 assists, and 2.2 blocks.  In the Bulls recent win over the Toronto Raptors, which put them ahead of the Raptors for the final playoff seed, Noah had no restrictions on how many minutes he would play.  It was the first time the Bulls had not monitored his minutes since his return, and he had a beast of a game.  He nearly had a triple double, with 18 points, 19 rebounds, 7 assists, and 1 block.  Noah has done a great job not only on the glass and scoring inside, but also distributing the ball and finding the open man out of the post.  He has had three or more assists in five of the past six games.  The Bulls are only 1/2 game up on the Raptors with two games left to play, so they still need to take care of business against the Boston Celtics and Charlotte Bobcats if they want to be playing in the postseason.  The Raptors have one game left against the New York Knicks, which they will likely win.  The Raptors also own the tiebreaker, so the Bulls will probably need to win their final two games if they want in on the playoffs.  That means the Bulls will need Noah to give them two more big games.

Joakim Noah and his injured foot (plantar fasciitis) have almost ruined the Chicago Bulls’ season this year and they are out of the top eight Eastern Conference playoff picture.  Noah recently missed 10 straight games for the Bulls, and they lost every single one of those games.  Noah returned to action on March 20th against the Philadelphia 76ers, and played in his fourth straight game Saturday night against the New Jersey Nets.  The Bulls have been really careful with Noah though, and he hasn’t played more than 13 minutes in any of those four games.  Noah, however, has been looking more and more healthy from game to game.  Saturday night against the Nets he looked liked the pre-injury Noah, grabbing rebounds aggressively and throwing down dunks on the opposing team’s big men.  He finished with 9 points, 5 rebounds, and 1 block in just 13 minutes of action.  It was the Nets though, one of the worst teams in NBA history.  Still, it was a good sign for the Bulls to see Noah with an extra pep in his step and gaining more confidence with each extra minute.  Hopefully Noah can continue to progress and get healthy, because with him the Bulls are definitely a playoff team.

The Bulls have lost starting small forward Luol Deng for at least the next 2-3 weeks as he has aggravated his right calf injury. Deng played in 62 games (all starts) for the Bulls this season in which he is averaging 37.9 minutes, 18.0 points, 7.3 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.0 steal per game. Rookie James Johnson will fill in for Deng while he is out. Johnson has played in 58 games (7 starts) for the Bulls this season and he is averaging 11.5 minutes, 3.9 points, 2.0 rebounds and 0.6 assists per game. This is some bad luck for the Bulls.

Not only were the Chicago Bulls blown out by the Orlando Magic last night, but they added insult to injury with Derrick Rose leaving the game with a sprained left wrist.  It happened late in the first quarter, when Rose fell hard on his wrist after colliding hard with Magic center Dwight Howard.  It was the second hard, injury-causing collision of the season that Rose has had with Howard.  Earlier in the season Rose went up hard against Howard and fell painfully hard on his hip, resulting him almost missing his first All-Star game.  Now Rose will be out against their upcoming game against the Miami Heat and possibly longer.  I’m not suggesting Howard is intentionally trying to injure Rose, but Rose’s teammates need to protect their young superstar and show their will be consequences for hard fouls on their number one guy.  Maybe a hard foul or two on Howard will make him think twice about going at Rose so aggressively.  The Bulls have now lost six straight games and it is looking more and more like they will miss the playoffs, especially with all the injuries they are dealing with.  Rose is out, Joakim Noah is out indefinitely (plantar fasciitis), Luol Deng (calf) has been missing some games, and Taj Gibson (plantar fasciitis) and Brad Miller (thumb, knee) are battling through injuries of their own.  It is unfortunate the Bulls are falling apart, because they have a good young team that surprised everyone last year with their exciting seven-game series with the Boston Celtics.

The Chicago Bulls have now lost five games in a row and they have played their way out of the top eight playoff spots in the Eastern Conference.  Many of the players on the Chicago Bulls are battling injuries, and it could be the reason why the Bulls have been playing so poorly lately.  Joakim Noah has been out with plantar fasciitis since February 27th and has only played in four games since February 4th.  He is not expected back anytime soon, but he is slowly getting better since he is now out of his walking boot/cast.  Rookie center Taj Gibson, who has been having a great season, is also battling plantar fasciitis.  Although Gibson’s plantar fasciitis is not as serious as Noah’s, he was one of three active Bulls’ players to sit out practice today (Wednesday) and he is questionable for tomorrow night’s game against the Orlando Magic.  The other two who missed practice were Luol Deng (calf) and Brad Miller (thumb).  The good news is that Miller’s thumb won’t keep him out of the lineup and it hasn’t been affecting his shooting.  Deng’s calf strain is not deemed serious.  Still, it looks like Deng may be out the next few games for the Bulls which won’t help them get out of their losing streak.  The Bulls have some tough teams left on their schedule, so if they don’t get healthy and start playing better defensively they will likely miss the playoffs.