Luol Deng Will Not Miss The Rest Of The Season

On Saturday night while the Bulls were busy celebrating their 17-point comeback against the Houston Rockets, Luol Deng was getting some bad news.  Deng only played 15 minutes on Saturday night before leaving the game with pain in his right leg which he said he'd been dealing with for some time.

Deng then had x-rays done on the leg and the team thought they'd found a stress fracture in his right tibia, which would bring his season to an end. Well thankfully the team's doctors can make some mistakes from time to time, because an MRI on Sunday showed that Deng doesn't have a stress fracture at all, but just a bruised right shin.

The team also got more good news when an MRI on Tim Thomas showed only a quad strain, and now both he and Deng are listed day to day.

Still, even if the Bulls are without Deng for a couple of games, this injury may be a blessing in disguise.  John Salmons has played very well for the Bulls since coming over from Sacramento.  With Deng sidelined it will open up more minutes for Salmons who gives the Bulls a lot more options on offense than Deng does.

So I guess for Luol the news from his MRI was good and bad. While his injury isn't going to cost him the rest of his season, it may end up costing him his spot in the starting lineup.

Along with writing for NBCCHICAGO.com, Tom Fornelli can also be found contributing at FanHouse, SPORTSbyBROOKS, and his own Chicago sports blog Foul Balls.  He has a bruised index finger, but he's playing through the pain.