Luol Deng, prior to a game that the Chicago Bulls hoped he would play in (Getty Images)

Calling the Chicago Bulls’ 2012-13 a “lost season” is no justification to sit players, deal rotation parts, or take things lighter just because Derrick Rose is recovering from a torn ACL. It’s no excuse to let Rose sit the entire year, or to pass on re-signing Omer Asik, or to run Joakim Noah into the ground. It’s no excuse for either end of the “give up”/”try real hard” spectrum, really, and shouldn’t be an excuse to rest All-Star forward Luol Deng for the rest of the playoffs.

Luol Deng should sit out the rest of the playoffs, though, because there is no reason to push him back in to pro-level competition. As Deng recovers from a major illness and botched spinal tap procedure, the team should make the adult choice here (for once in their recent history) and declare Deng done for the year.

In his first meeting with the press since Deng was sidelined by illness, Deng came correct at Bulls practice on Thursday in discussing the obstacles that have been in place in the days since he was hospitalized.

[Also: Filomena Tobias, fan who flipped off Joakim Noah, has crazy backstory]

Chicago Bulls beat writer K.C. Johnson (of the Chicago Tribune) and Mike McGraw (of the Arlington Heights Daily-Herald) relayed Deng’s discussion, via their Twitter accounts:

Deng says he's lost 15 pounds: “I tried to shoot a little bit (today) and I struggled. I couldn’t do it."

— Mike McGraw (@McGrawDHBulls) May 9, 2013

Monta Ellis and Larry Sanders prior to their locker room confrontation (Getty Images)

The Milwaukee Bucks were a combustible mess all season. Worse, they were a boring combustible mess. They didn’t even have the timing or touch to release news about their infighting during the actual season. Instead, a report about a locker room confrontation between defensive maven Larry Sanders and scoring guard Monta Ellis was released nearly two weeks after their last game of the season, dumped on a Thursday afternoon in the midst of the playoffs.

CBS Sports’ Ken Berger broke the news about a near-clash of Milwaukee’s near-titans, and we use the “near” qualifier because the two never came to blows, and 38-win teams don’t really have titans. Here’s Ken’s report:

After the Bucks lost 104-91 to the Heat in Milwaukee on April 25, Sanders vented in the locker room and said in a fiery speech, “We need to start playing together as a team and stop worrying about next year,” according to one of the people briefed on the confrontation. “We need to stop being selfish and start worrying about right now.”

Richard Hamilton preps for absolutely nothing (Getty Images)

Take away the incredible 142 points scored in the Chicago Bulls’ triple overtime victory over the Brooklyn Nets in Game 4 of their opening round series, and you have a severely lacking Bulls offense. With those numbers out of the equation, Chicago is averaging just 88.9 points per game during these playoffs, worked up mostly against a Nets team that has major issues defensively. Kirk Hinrich, signed last summer to hold down the fort while Derrick Rose recovers from ACL surgery, has been out since that Game 4 with a calf injury. Nate Robinson and Marco Belinelli, onetime end-of-the-bench guys, have had to play the hero. Daequan Cook is getting significant minutes in the second round. Chicago needs offensive help, badly.

[Related: LeBron James, Heat frustrate Bulls in historic Game 2 blowout]

And through it all, a shooting guard who used to routinely average over 19 points per game sits on the bench. Richard Hamilton has played just over ten minutes during this year’s postseason, and this is coming off of a regular season that saw the 2004 NBA champion start 45 out of the 50 contests he played with Chicago. After a disastrous run in the first game of Chicago’s postseason run (Hamilton turned the ball over, missed two shots, and a miscommunication with teammate Nate Robinson led to another turnover for Nate), Hamilton has been handed “Did Not Play – Coach’s Decision”-status in seven of the team’s eight subsequent games.

Masai Ujiri in the press conference introducing Andre Iguodala to Denver last August (Getty Images)

Denver Nuggets general manager Masai Ujiri has won the 2012-13 Executive of the Year award, the rare NBA honor that is actually voted on by colleagues and front office peers. NBA observers may never have quaked in fear in anticipation of the presence of the 2012-13 Nuggets, and the team may have bowed out of the first round in a one-sided defeat at the hands of the Golden State Warriors, but these Nuggies did do incredible work during the regular season. The Nuggets won 57 out of 82 games despite starting the season with what could have been a destructive road-heavy schedule, all while playing without a single starter that even sniffed the midseason NBA All-Star Game.

[Also: George Karl wins the 2012-13 NBA Coach of the Year award]

The Denver Post’s Benjamin Hochman was the first to report the news late Wednesday night, handing the first African-born GM in major North American sports a deserved award that will stand along Nuggets coach George Karl’s Coach of the Year award as some consolation for an injury-plagued early end to Denver’s season. Ujiri has quite a bit of work ahead of him as the Nuggets attempt to overcome that first-round hurdle for the third time in the franchise’s last quarter-century, but for now the award stands as a tangible tribute to Ujiri and Karl’s vision for a transition-based team featuring a different hero every night.

Brook Lopez during Brooklyn's Game 7 loss to Chicago (Getty Images)

A look around the league and the web that covers it. It's also important to note that the rotation order and starting nods aren't always listed in order of importance. That's for you, dear reader, to figure out.

C: The Classical. David Roth delves into the enervating and tacky start of the Brooklyn Nets, the five-year malaise following Jason Kidd’s trade demand season of 2007-08, and the team’s tough first year after moving across the river.
PF: Indianapolis Star. Bob Kravitz details why, despite New York’s fantastic run to pull away in Game 2, the Indiana Pacers should be the favorites in this conference semifinal.
SF: SB Nation. After an embarrassing DJ turn during Game 1, Jon Bois previews the upcoming San Antonio Spurs in-house arena music we’re expected to take in for Game 2.
SG: Eye on Basketball. Royce Young is completely correct when he points to Kevin Martin as a needed bulwark to fortify Oklahoma City’s comeback in a five-game series that they do not own the home court advantage in.
PG: SB Nation. The Chicago Bulls have cleared Derrick Rose to play basketball. They’ve also cleared quite a few players that weren’t fit to play basketball. This is Tom Ziller’s damning and accurate indictment.

(Courtesy Twitter.com/mamasasso)

The city of Chicago (or, by extension and more specifically, the city of Skokie, IL.) is quite proud of its Chicago Bulls. The team has overcome quite a bit on its way toward staring down the defending champion Miami Heat; with a chance to take a 2-0 conference semifinals lead on Wednesday. Along the way, this 90-game Derrick Rose-less run has inspired all sorts of breathless tributes.

None finer than the work of Command Signs, which gave drivers on the Edens Expressway in Chicago the chance to gawk and laugh at their wonderfully Photoshopped digital bow downs to this incessantly entertaining Bulls team.

Via The Basketball Jones, via Blog-a-Bull, via Chicagoist, via Command Signs, via the Edens Expressway, here are the billboards:

(Courtesy Twitter.com/CommandSign)

Shaquille O'Neal and Kendrick Perkins clutch and grab (Getty Images)

Shaquille O’Neal has never been shy about initiating various beefs with opponents, former coaches, or even current teammates. From Dwight Howard to Kobe Bryant to Chris Bosh and Brian Hill, Shaq has never shied away from calling out those that displeased him. Throughout all of this O’Neal has long looked petty in the process, as he’s usually the first to lash out.

This time, it’s different. This time it was Oklahoma City Thunder center (and former O’Neal teammate, for 12 games at least) Kendrick Perkins that went after Shaq. Or, “Shack.” We’re pretty sure it was Shaq.

Here’s Perkins’ tweet, sent out during TNT’s coverage of the thrilling double-header that saw the Chicago Bulls beat the Miami Heat, and the San Antonio Spurs come back to top the Golden State Warriors:

Do Shack ever stop talking about himself. SMH

— Kendrick Perkins (@KendrickPerkins) May 7, 2013

LeBron James knows that the onus is on him (Getty Images)

It’s true that the first game of a conference semifinal series isn’t the typical “shock the world”-type setting, but the Chicago Bulls truly did shock the NBA with their Game 1 victory over the Miami Heat on Monday. The Heat had won 41 out of 43 games prior to that defeat, including the team’s first round sweep of the Milwaukee Bucks, and yet a gritty, determined Bulls team managed to hand Miami its third loss in 44 tries.

With that win in place and the Heat’s ears most assuredly perked up, shouldn’t we expect the defending champs to return to form in Game 2? To startle the still-filling-in home crowd with a quick pounce and eventual blowout win? To destroy a Bulls team working without four former starters in Derrick Rose, Kirk Hinrich, Richard Hamilton, and Luol Deng?

Sure. Then again, these are the Chicago Bulls we’re talking about.