QUOTE
MIAMI -- A couple of days before his first NBA playoff game, Bulls forward Luol Deng admitted to being almost too excited.
''I have to tone it down a bit,'' said Deng, who missed the postseason as a rookie because of wrist surgery.
Coach Scott Skiles saw the same thing Saturday during the Bulls' 111-106 loss to the Miami Heat in Game 1. Deng played only 21 minutes and 42 seconds -- 11 minutes below his season average -- and scored six points, snapping his streak of three 20-plus games.
''Lu looked a little bit nervous out there to us, and understandably so,'' Skiles said after the game. ''I'm sure he'll be better the next game.''
Skiles second-guessed himself Sunday for limiting Deng's playing time. In the teams' last regular-season meeting April 16 in Miami, Deng came off the bench to score 26 points.
''I may have made a mistake by not getting him out there a little bit more,'' Skiles said. ''I had a couple opportunities to get him back in there.
"Around the four-minute mark [of the fourth quarter], I thought about getting him back in there, but he had been out for a while at that point. I didn't know if that would be good for him.''
Deng sat the final 10 minutes.
''It took him a while to get into the game, but that's understandable in his first playoff game,'' Skiles said. ''I wasn't sitting there on the bench, intentionally saying to myself, 'Lu's too nervous to put back in the game.'
"He also was a victim of circumstance. We went to the small lineup, it got Ben [Gordon] going again and we came back. We just decided to go with it until the end of the game. It didn't work out. Lu is going to be fine [tonight].''
''I have to tone it down a bit,'' said Deng, who missed the postseason as a rookie because of wrist surgery.
Coach Scott Skiles saw the same thing Saturday during the Bulls' 111-106 loss to the Miami Heat in Game 1. Deng played only 21 minutes and 42 seconds -- 11 minutes below his season average -- and scored six points, snapping his streak of three 20-plus games.
''Lu looked a little bit nervous out there to us, and understandably so,'' Skiles said after the game. ''I'm sure he'll be better the next game.''
Skiles second-guessed himself Sunday for limiting Deng's playing time. In the teams' last regular-season meeting April 16 in Miami, Deng came off the bench to score 26 points.
''I may have made a mistake by not getting him out there a little bit more,'' Skiles said. ''I had a couple opportunities to get him back in there.
"Around the four-minute mark [of the fourth quarter], I thought about getting him back in there, but he had been out for a while at that point. I didn't know if that would be good for him.''
Deng sat the final 10 minutes.
''It took him a while to get into the game, but that's understandable in his first playoff game,'' Skiles said. ''I wasn't sitting there on the bench, intentionally saying to myself, 'Lu's too nervous to put back in the game.'
"He also was a victim of circumstance. We went to the small lineup, it got Ben [Gordon] going again and we came back. We just decided to go with it until the end of the game. It didn't work out. Lu is going to be fine [tonight].''