March 03--Until Wednesday night, Taj Gibson had been the only Bull not to miss a game in this most injury plagued of seasons.
But Gibson sat against the Magic with the right hamstring injury that made him leave Tuesday's loss to the Heat early. Gibson revealed he has been dealing with soreness for about a month.
Coach Fred Hoiberg picked Cameron Bairstow to start in Gibson's place, a nod to Bairstow's defense and keeping Bobby Portis in a scoring and energy role off the bench.
Bulls physician Brian Cole is in the area attending a conference and planned to evaluate Gibson later Tuesday. The Bulls released no timeline on his absence.
"I don't think I should be out long," Gibson said. "When it happened, I was scared at first because it had never happened to me before."
Gibson's absence piles on top of those for Joakim Noah, Jimmy Butler and Nikola Mirotic. Combined with the trade of defensive-minded guard Kirk Hinrich to Atlanta, the Bulls' defense has been getting shredded, surrendering an opponent franchise record 67.5 percent shooting in the Heat loss.
The Bulls did get good news on Butler, who has been working out in Chicago and is on track to practice Friday. If he suffers no setbacks, he is expected to return either Saturday against the Rockets or Monday against the Bucks.
Coach Fred Hoiberg said Nikola Mirotic, out since Jan. 27 following an appendectomy and complications that required a second surgery, remains one to two weeks away from returning.
