Rose has been suffering from back spasms. Earlier Friday, he said his back was stiff but he expected to play against the Bobcats.

While speaking with the media before the game, coach Tom Thibodeau said he hadn't spoken to Rose or the team's trainer and therefore he didn't know Rose's status for the game. Rose was originally listed as a starter for the Bulls but later scratched.

"He's got a personal issue he's dealing with, a family matter," Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau said of Hamilton. "He'll be back shortly and we'll see where he is health-wise. The big thing with him is we want him completely healthy. We're going to be patient."

"I had a feeling" Deng said. "I don't know why. I was still surprised to see that [I] made it. This year kind of felt different going into it. There have been a few years where I thought I might make it. This year, for some reason, I thought it was going to happen."

Coach Tom Thibodeau wasn't surprised, either.

"I thought it would happen," the Bulls coach said. "The one thing about Lu, if you really look at his career each year he has been in the league he has gotten better and better. That's a sign of how serious he is, how he approaches the game. He's obviously a very well-rounded player. There isn't anything he doesn't do well. Obviously, he's very significant for us in terms of us winning."

Deng is the Bulls second best player but is often overlooked because he does so many things well that no one thing stands out. Here's what I've learned covering the team this season: He's a guy you have to watch every night to truly appreciate how multifaceted his game really is and how much he contributes to the team.

"Coaches appreciate what I do and how I play," he said. "It just feels like in the past years maybe someone was having a better year and maybe I got left out. But I've always gotten a lot of compliments [from] coaches around the league who appreciate the way I play. To me, my coaches, my teammates and people who know the game, they see it. I'm not so much caught up in people who do not know the game who just want to see the flashiness."

Deng said Thibodeau and his coaching staff, along with Derrick Rose, has made it easier for him to excel. Staying healthy has been a plus, as well. Although he did tear a ligament in his left wrist earlier this season, causing him to miss several games, he has avoided the type of injuries that resulted in him missing extended periods earlier in his career.

He said sitting out the Bulls memorable first-rounds playoff series against the Celtics during the 2008-09 season was the most difficult time in his career.

"When I had the stress fracture and had to watch one of the best series --- Boston against us --- that I've never seen," Deng said when asked to describe his lowest point as a Bull. "Knowing that I'm on that team but I can't dress up and play and then sitting there and reading everything, the papers, the fans, saying I really wasn't hurt. To me, that was the lowest point and the craziest thing I ever had to go through. That's the first time I went through something like that. It helped me a lot in bouncing back and knowing how things worked. Before I felt I was loved by everyone. That's really the way I felt. Through my whole life I never experienced if you want to call it hate or whatever it was. Until that point, and sitting there for seven games, to me, was the toughest thing I've done my entire career. "

Thibodeau may be Deng's biggest fan. He may also end up coaching Deng in the All-Star game. Coaches of the team with the best record in each conference through games played through Feb. 15 will be named All-Star coaches. At 22-6, the Bulls currently own the best record in the Eastern Conference.

"For us he's invaluable," Thibodeau said. "There are so many intangibles he brings to our team --- unselfishness, hard work, caring about nothing but winning and how he can help. He's a great teammate, very coachable and there's nothing he doesn't do well. He plays great defense, he moves without the ball, he shares the ball, he can hit threes, he can put it on the floor, he slashes, he can post. It's his leadership, the way he approaches things every day, the example he sets, you can't say enough about him."

The Bulls forward was named to his first All-Star game along with Eastern Conference reserves Paul Pierce of the Celtics, Chris Bosh of the Heat, Roy Hibbert of the Pacers, Andre Iguodala of the 76ers, Joe Johnson of the Hawks and former llini standout and current Nets point guard Deron Williams.

Deng, Hibbert and Iguodala will be playing in their first all-star game. Rose has been named a starter at point guard.

Coaches of the team with the best record in each conference through games played through Feb. 15 will be named All-Star coaches. At 22-6, the Bulls currently own the conference's best record. Therefore, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau could end up coaching Rose, Deng and the Eastern squad.

And while it's easy to scoff at the competition -- the 11-14 Milwaukee Bucks (113-90), the 8-19 New Jersey Nets (108-87) and the 4-22 Hornets -- the totality of the Bulls' domination can't be ignored.

The Bulls were trailing for a combined 24 seconds over all three games -- Luc Mbah a Moute gave the Bucks a 2-0 lead in Milwaukee on Saturday before Derrick Rose settled the matter by scoring 13 points in the next 4:20. They led 30-16, 35-14 and 23-14 after the first quarter en route to halftime leads of 24, 25 and 13 points.

Or let's put it this way: they led by 10 points or more for more than 39 out of 48 minutes against the Bucks (39:29) and Hornets (39:23) and for nearly 44 minutes (43:54) against the Nets. That's the definition of cruising.

''My back feels better. I should be ready to go tonight,'' Rose said prior to the Bulls' shootaround. ''Game-time decision. I'll see how it is when I go out there and I should be all right.''

Rose, who did not participate in the shootaround, said he enjoyed a relatively leisurely day off in New Orleans.

''It was great. I laid around the whole day,'' he said. ''I really don't get that much time to do that. But since I'm here, I don't know too many people here, so I had the whole day to myself.''

They didn't even need Derrick Rose to do it. But therein lies the problem for the otherwise ever-improving Bulls: Rose played less than 11 minutes and sat out the second half because of back spasms.

Normally that's just a typical malady affecting Rose during an NBA season, but this isn't a normal season. Rose has been playing through tightness in his back since at least the last five games and ''probably even before that,'' Rose himself acknowledged after the game. And after having played 27 games in the first 44 days of the season, there's no telling what effect the rigors of the post-lockout schedule will have on Rose's ailing back.

''Just back spasms. Nothing to worry about,'' Rose said after the game.

Rose has been worked on by the training staff during recent games. But the situation appears to be getting worse. He missed part of the second quarter against the Bucks while getting treatment near the Bulls bench. This time he missed the entire second half.

''Tonight was pretty tough,'' he acknowledged. ''It was tight the whole game. It's just something where I've got to get a massage and stretched right away and hopefully it'll be gone.''

Rose picked up two early fouls -- the second one an offensive foul and went out of the game with 9:14 left in the first quarter and the Bulls leading 9-2. Rose returned with 10:38 left in the second quarter and went back to the bench with 2:54 left in the first half.

Rose scored four points on 2-of-3 shooting, with no assists, no steals and two turnovers.

''Who wouldn't?'' said Bogans, who started all 97 games for the Bulls last season but was cut when Richard Hamlton was signed. ''We're all men here first -- we're men before basketball players. I don't want to say the wrong thing, so I'm going to be quiet and just let it go.

''It was tough. It was a learning experience. I [decided] I'm going to turn it into a positive and work my ass off and that's what I dd. It was fun playing with them last year. But as far as [getting cut], I'm done with it.''

Either way, the return of Luol Deng to the lineup has given the Bulls a big lift on many levels. Deng scored 21 points against the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night after missing seven games with a torn ligament in his left wrist. But he means much more than that to a team that lacks a vocal leader.

''Lu's just kind of a safety net. He kind of does everything,'' said guard Kyle Korver. ''He's a great on-ball defender. He gets rebounds. We don't run a ton of plays for him, but he always ends up with the ball.

''He makes good decisions. He just kind of covers everything. The way he's able to play that many minutes and still play at a high level is a real tribute to him. He's playing at an All-Star level for sure.''

It wasn't long after that the calls for Brian Scalarine started coming. Without a doubt, Derrick Rose and the Bulls were energized by the home crowd in their 113-90 blowout of the hapless Bucks.

Except the home crowd was at the Bradley Center. In Milwaukee.

''I thought the crowd tonight was amazing,'' said Bulls guard Kyle Korver, who scored 18 points and hit 4-of-8 three-point shots. ''It was like a college crowd. It was rowdy. And it was all for us.''

Playing his first game since suffering a torn ligament in his left wrist two weeks and eight games ago, Deng was his typical model of consistency in the Bulls' 113-90 blowout of the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday night at the Bradley Center.

Deng started and scored 21 points on 9-of-19 shooting with nine rebounds, three turnovers, one steal and one blocked shot in 41 minutes. No other Bull played more than 35 minutes.

''It feels fine. It feels great,'' said Deng, who was peppered with questions about his wrist after the game. ''Right now it's fine. If anything, I'll know [Sunday].''

''I was just taking what they were giving me,'' Rose said after he blitzed the Milwaukee Bucks with an first-quarter barrage en route to 26 points and 13 assists in a 113-90 blowout Saturday before a sellout crowd at the Bradley Center dominated by Bulls fans.

But it looked like more than that -- more like payback against Bucks guard Brandon Jennings, who scored 16 points in the first quarter against Rose at the United Center last month, before Rose rallied the Bulls to a 107-100 victory.

''Derrick remembers things,'' said Bulls forward Kyle Korver. ''And the last time we played Milwaukee, Brandon Jennings really went at him in the first quarter. Derrick he looks for anything. I think he really wanted to attack.''

''Who's in it?'' he said, probably joking.

But while Thibodeau has little interest in the game itself, he does have a healthy respect for New England Patriots coach Bill Belichick. Thibodeau was an assistant coach with the Celtics for three seasons (2007-10) during Belichick's reign with the Patriots.

''He's a big basketball fan. He was at a number of games in Boston,'' Thibodeau said. ''I had the opportunity to meet him. I haven't had the opportunity to spend any time with him, but I'd like to.''

Deng has missed the past seven games after suffering a torn ligament in his left wrist in a victory over the Charlotte Bobcats on Jan. 21. The Bulls are 4-3 without Deng. They are 15-3 with him. Deng is averaging 15.9 points, 7.5 rebounds and 2.6 assists per game this season and is the team's top defensive forward.

''There's a possibility [Deng will play vs. the Bucks],'' Thibodeau said before the Bulls' shootaround at the Al McGuire Center on the campus of Marquette University. ''He's very close right now.''