Kirk Hinrich, the feisty point guard that sparked the three Bulls wins against the Nets with his defense on Deron Williams, will be out for the Bulls Thursday night for Game 6. So tweets K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune.
Just to add to the fun, Luol Deng and Taj Gibson are sick, neither went through shootaround and both will be game-time decisions.
The loss of Hinrich a big blow for a Bulls team that knows it has its best shot to close out this series and advance on Thursday night at home. Chicago leads the best-of-seven series 3-2.
In games 1 and 5 of the series (when Hinrich was not covering Williams) D-Will averaged 22.5 points on 51.7 percent shooting plus having 8.5 assists per game — he broke down the Bulls defense and led his team to wins. In the three games Hinrich was on him D-Will averaged 19.3 points on 44.7 percent shooting with 8 assists per game (and the scoring/assists numbers are skewed by the triple overtime game).
Chicago needs to find a way to win this game — it will be hard for them to win a Game 7 back in Brooklyn on Sunday.
By the way, because people keep asking, no Derrick Rose is not playing Thursday. He just needs to come out and say he’s done for the season to end this nonsense.
