Bulls 97, Bucks 81

Wallace injured in preseason win

The Associated Press

October 25, 2007, 10:02 PM CDT


Kirk Hinrich scored 20 points and Ben Wallace scored eight points before leaving late in the second quarter with a sprained left ankle as the Bulls defeated the Milwaukee Bucks 97-81 on Thursday night.

In their final preseason game, the Bulls also lost forward Tyrus Thomas in the third quarter with a right foot injury and rookie forward Joakim Noah went down in the fourth quarter with what looked to be a right ankle injury. Neither player returned to the game.



Wallace's injury came when Hinrich scored on a driving layup with 9.1 seconds left in the second quarter. Wallace, who was battling for position with Bucks center Dan Gadzuric, got his foot tangled up with Gadzuric's and fell to the floor. Wallace stayed on the floor for the final nine seconds holding his left ankle.

Wallace was treated by a team trainer and limped to the locker room with the assistance of a team trainer and Chris Duhon.

The Bulls (4-3) led 52-43 at the half, and then outscored the Bucks 14-6 to start the third quarter. Ben Gordon hit a 3-pointer to start the run and Hinrich added another 3-pointer to give the Bulls a 66-49 lead early in the third quarter.

Gordon played in his second game after missing the first five exhibition games with a sprained left ankle. He finished with 11 points in 24 minutes. The Bulls also had Luol Deng back, who missed the past two games with a right wrist contusion. Deng finished with 12 points.

Bucks starters Andrew Bogut, Michael Redd and Mo Williams missed the game. Bogut has a sprained left wrist, while Williams and Redd had the night off. The Bucks play their final preseason game on Friday at Minnesota.

Bogut's status is listed as day to day, and it's not yet decided whether Bogut will play in Milwaukee's regular-season opener on Oct. 31 in Orlando.

Charlie Villanueva led the Bucks with 19 points and Desmond Mason added 11. The Bucks (3-4) play their final exhibition game on Friday night at Minnesota.

Bulls forward Andres Nocioni sat out with a calf strain.

Milwaukee rookie forward Yi Jianlian finished with seven points off the bench on 2-for-7 shooting.

Thomas, who is battling for a starting position, scored six points before injuring his foot in the third quarter.

Wow that blows, I am watching the boxscore and noticed Tyrus played around 20 minutes so I figured it was just his time to stop but I guess it was premature. fish, please do not let us lose those three guys or our season will take a turn for the worst.

Jesus, so the entire front line got hurt. Yikes.

X-rays all negative... thats good.

im sure all will play opening night. go bulls!

H. Christ. Man, I really am glad that there's all that time between this game and our season opener. Yowza.

What is the season opener like a week away? That should give them enough time to heal a bit. I'm glad they haven't found anything serious. I never saw them on TV so idk what they looked like. If anyone did, please explain what you saw.

wallace came down on the side of his ankle, and was helped off my trainer/duhon, noah turned his ankle, and was rolling on the ground in pain, and tyrus limped off.

Tyrus is listed as day to day.

was at the game and when wallace's injury originally happened, everyone in our section, including me and my brother, thought he would be done for an extended period of time. thomas and noah we thought would be find

thank god ben is ok

Injury Update:
from bulls.com

Noah
Forward Joakim Noah


Right ankle sprain
Out
X-rays taken Thursday evening were negative
More information will follow after he is re-evaluated over the weekend


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Thomas
Forward Tyrus Thomas


Right foot strain
Day-to-day


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Wallace
Center Ben Wallace


Left ankle sprain
Out
X-rays taken Thursday evening were negative
More information will follow after he is re-evaluated over the weekend

"Out" for how long?

thomas is off the injury report, and wallace and noah did not practice today/

thomas off injury report, and wallace and noah did not practice on monday.

If it's any consolation, I asked Ben if he was going to play on Wednesday and he said "probably" today at Steve & Berry's...