ATLANTA (AP) - Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng could miss up to a week with a sprained left ankle, although he did not appear to be limping when he was held out of Saturday night's game against the Atlanta Hawks.
Deng hurt the ankle while attempting to grab a rebound Friday night at Miami. An MRI exam was negative, said Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro, who hopes the forward misses no more than a week."I'm hoping three, four, five, six, seven days - somewhere in there," Del Negro said. "I don't know. We'll just figure it out as we go."
Deng, who is averaging 13.3 points in 26 games for the Bulls, was holding crutches but did not appear to put any weight on them Saturday night.
Meanwhile, forward-center Drew Gooden missed his fourth straight game with a sprained right ankle. Del Negro said he hopes Gooden can play Monday at New Jersey.
Point guard Kirk Hinrich (thumb) and forward-center Michael Ruffin (Achilles') were not with the team.
