Luon Deng missed Bulls game with Achilles injury

The Chicago Bulls were without small forward Luol Deng on Saturday night, when they took on the Detroit Pistons. Just before tip-off, Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau confirmed that Deng would miss the game with a sore left Achilles tendon.

From Aggrey Sam of CSN Chicago:

"“I don’t know [when Deng will return], other than what Fred [Tedeschi, the Bulls’ head athletic trainer] tells me,” Thibodeau said. “He was unsure this morning. He had tightness, they wanted to work on him and he said it could be better in a couple days.”The coach also said the All-Star small forward has been playing with the injury since the team’s lone win on the “Circus Trip,” ironically at Detroit, Nov. 27.“Actually, he said he thinks he did it in the previous Detroit game and he just had the tightness, and it hasn’t gone away,” Thibodeau said. “He had some swelling and he’s trying to get that down.”"

There was plenty of speculation that Deng would be unable to suit up for tonight’s game, so the fact that he was ruled out came as a surprise to none.

Deng is officially listed as day-to-day, so it looks like he will avoid any lengthy layoff.

This season, Deng averages 19.4 points, 7.1 rebounds and 4.2 assists in 38.6 minutes per game.