Luol Deng still has pain in his injured right shin and with five games left in the regular season seems to be a long shot to return to the Bulls lineup before the postseason.
``I increased the workout a little bit and had a great deal of pain,'' Deng said before missing his 18th game due to the injury. ``So I'm just going to try and be off of everything for a little bit again.''
Deng will rest the leg for another week. The Bulls will play their last two regular-season games next week. So does Deng believe his season is over?
``I don't want to get to that point,'' he said. ``Even if I'm capable of being back for five or 10 miniutes, whatever, so guys can sit down a little bit because guys are playing a lot of minutes I can help out. Now I can't even scrimmage for five minutes let a lone go and play. I'm hoping next week to try and increase it again and see how it goes.''
The Bulls re-signed Linton Johnson III for the rest of the season Tuesday.
Tim Thomas missed the game against the New York Knicks Tuesday because of a family situation.