If DeMar DeRozan hasn't always looked like Superman this season, there's now a concrete reason.
The All-Star reserve exited the Chicago Bulls' fourth straight loss Monday night with a flareup of the hip injury that sidelined him for last week's road loss in Memphis and, for the first time, disclosed that the injury has plagued him for "a month and a half." DeRozan said he planned to "get it checked out" on Tuesday but didn't yet know if that would entail an MRI exam.
"It was bothering me the whole game," DeRozan said. "I just felt it. I didn't want to risk hurting it any more. It's just the accumulation of what it's been."
DeRozan posted 19 points with six assists on 9-for-20 shooting. He's averaging 18.2 points over six February games, his lowest-scoring month this season. DeRozan is averaging 25.4 points on the season.
"I'm going to figure it out," DeRozan said. "Just dealing with this whole leg situation. It's just been tough to get explosion on a lot of my shots, just dealing with the discomfort and the pain. Ain't no excuse for me. I'm going to figure it out one way or another. It's going to come."
DeRozan checked out with 62 seconds left and the Bulls down by nine points. He said he hopes Tuesday's pending checkup will lead to a better idea of how to treat the lingering discomfort.
"It probably happened 10 games before the Boston game," DeRozan said, referencing a Jan. 9 matchup in which he strained his right quadriceps and missed the next three games. "I thought it was like a knee contusion. It's a weird feeling. I've never felt anything like this. When I'm sitting doing nothing, I don't feel anything. It's just when I do anything to work that muscle in the leg, it's a lot of discomfort. So just trying to figure that out and get that situated as best I can."
DeRozan is scheduled to make his second straight All-Star appearance this Sunday in Salt Lake City. Asked about that game, DeRozan shifted the focus to the Bulls' remaining two games before the All-Star break---at Indiana on Wednesday and versus the Bucks on Thursday at the United Center.
"I still plan on playing," DeRozan said. "I ain't worried about the All-Star game right now."
Asked if Monday's discomfort was worse than what he has experienced in the past six weeks, DeRozan grimaced.
"It's been bad," he said. "I'm never been one to complain or make any type of excuses. It's just been something I've been dealing with for awhile."