Chicago Bulls’ starting-centre Joakim Noah sits out against the Minnesota Timberwolves with ankle injury
The Chicago Bulls starting-centre, Joakim Noah, missed the Wednesday’s game against the Minnesota Timberwolves to rest his ankle injury that he received in Monday’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers.
Prior to his injury, Noah contributed 10 points, game-high 13 rebounds and three blocks Chicago’s 105-99 defeat to the Sixers at United Center.
After proper check-up and MRI, the doctors advised him to take rest, as the reports were negative.
Noah joined the practice session on Wednesday night but was unable to join the squad against the Wolves. However, Noah’s absence did not bother the Bulls at all, as they defeated the Wolves 108-91 at Target Center. The 38-year-old Kurt Thomas replaced Noah
at centre position and added just nine points and eight rebounds in the win.
At the end of pre-game practice on Wednesday morning, Noah said, “[I’m] just trying to take care of this ankle,” “I will see how I feel tonight. [I’m] just trying to push it tonight and see if I can push it through.” “It feels better than yesterday.”
The pleasing news for the management and the Bulls’ fans is that Noah’s condition is much better heading into the Friday’s match against the Detroit Pistons at Palace of Auburn Hills.
"The swelling is down and we thought the rest would be better this morning," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said.
However, Thibodeau said that Noah would warm up and then the decision would be made by looking into his condition. He further said, even if Noah would be playing, his minutes will be restricted and Thomas would be playing more minutes.
Playing in the absence of Noah is no doubt a great loss to Chicago as he is averaging 12.1 points and 11 rebounds during this season. In addition to that, the Bulls believe in his rebounds’ ability to control the opponent team early in the game.
If Noah misses Friday’s game, the Bulls power forward, Carlos Boozer, would be getting more of a chance at the offensive end. He seems like a different player in the absence of Noah and uses back and forth shots to put the game away. Point guard, Derrick
Rose, along with other team-mates knows this fact, and they are going to pass Boozer with every available shot.
While talking about Boozer’s game-high 24 points and 14 rebounds in their last match, Rose said, "His confidence is going to be high." "Tonight he was doing everything, had a big night for us, and that's what we need him to do every night."
Now the question arises, how is it is going to work if Noah rejoins the line-up? Would the team-mates get Boozer the ball every time or they prefer to play like a team in the presence of both players?
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