Last season, it was plantar fasciitis in both feet.
This season, Taj Gibson apparently has a pinched nerve in his right foot.
According to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune: “Taj Gibson didn’t practice Sunday after suffering what he called a pinched nerve in his right foot. Gibson suffered the injury during slide drills at the start of practice and limped out of Staples Center.”
Insert “agony of the feet” joke here.
Said Gibson: “It’s real sore. I don’t know if I’ll be able to play Tuesday (against the Lakers), but at least we have two more days to let it heal.”
This is lousy news, and not only because Taj is coming off what may have been his best game as a pro — 17 points and a career-high 18 rebounds plus his first ever three-pointer in a Bulls win over the Mavericks in Dallas.
The Lakers’ frontcourt — do the names Lamar Odom and Pau Gasol ring any bells? — is huge. If Gibson is out, Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau may have to start Joakim Noah at power forward and Omer Asik at center.
And, gulp, maybe even go to Brian Scalabrine early and often.
This isn’t exactly encouraging news for a team that’s heading off to face the defending champs in their building.
Anybody know any foot healing voodoo magic?
The news is particularly irritating given that Taj carries so much less weight than most big men. I remain suspicious of the quality of the Bulls medical/physical therapy personnel…
It would have been nice to be as competitive as possible. But the Bulls are losing this game either way. Start thinking about the Suns, Nuggets and Kings (teams the Bulls can beat).
Hellllllllooooo Kurt Thomas
I am honestly kind of excited to see Asik in with Noah. I wrote in my comment after the San Antonio game that it would be a fairly dynamic combination. Now I was thinking we could try that out against the Kings or some such team, not the defending champs. Regardless, it should be interesting to see Noah at 4 and Asik at 5. We should out board everyone with that combo getting serious minutes.
If Taj is out, I say go the exact opposite route and put Deng in at PF and try and run them out of the gym. That is a better option than more Asik and (shudder) Scalabrine. Don’t try to match up with an overwhelming strength of another team. Go with your strength and let the chips fall.
I hope they do use Lu at PF some tonight, just so they can break him from the “I’m going to post my guy up and try to muscle him around, up until I commit an offensive foul” playbook. The problem with Lu is that his game is all slashing with a tendency to shoot long range ducks. Pau would completely shut him down this game and there is no way that Luol can defend Pau.
Giving Asik Taj’s minutes would be a better option. Sure he isn’t the best, but at least he stands a chance at getting some rebounds while gaining the experience he will need later on.
Bynum is out. So Pau is playing center and Deng will match up against Odom. Still not a great matchup for the Bulls though. Hopefully they let JJ see minutes before Scal does.
Well, one thing that should help a bit is Asik should have some experience against Pau from international competition? Silver lining? Bright side? Still scared?
uh yeah, we’ll take this loss….
get better taj & booz
The biggest problem is that the Lakers still have the best player on the planet in crunch time. No real solution for that except an ambush in the tunnel.
I love how much Gibson has improved in the post and his jumper over the summer. HOWEVER, he must have the worst hands I’ve ever seen for a post player. Just watch how many passes just bounce right off his hands. He drops so many passes that lead to turnovers or blown fast break opportunities its uncanny. He needs to have someone blast basketballs at him over and over a la Goldberg from Might Ducks.