With a marquee matchup against the Heat looming on Sunday, speculation mounted this week that Luol Deng could return from a wrist injury that afternoon. Deng clarified things on Friday, speaking exclusively with BullsTV, saying, “Right now, I’m probably a week away, maybe more. ... It’s definitely a bad injury, but I really believe that I’ll be back soon.”

Sam Smith opens his mailbag to respond to the latest round of e-mails from his readers. "Rose wants to play and says he can play," he writes. "If your star says that, there’s not much else you can do, like with Kobe and the Lakers. The Bulls learned this lesson the hard way with Michael Jordan when he broke his foot in 1985..." >> Open the mailbag