Bulls’ Noah future in doubt following left shoulder injury

Just two years ago, Joakim Noah was the heart, soul, engine and face of the Bulls, serving as a wildly energetic backline protector for the league’s No. 2 defense and a main facilitator of a scrounging-up-baskets-however-possible offense in Derrick Rose’s absence.

Dirk Nowitzki scored 21 points Friday to lead the Dallas Mavericks to an 83-77 victory over the Chicago Bulls, who lost Joakim Noah because of a separated left shoulder.

The Dallas Mavericks invade the United Center to take on the Chicago Bulls tonight.

The time Noah will miss is still unknown as the he will have an MRI done on Saturday, but it doesn’t look good for the former All-Star Center.

With just under 10 minutes left in the second quarter, Noah tangled up with Dallas’ JaVale McGee.

The Bulls’ final regular season game is on April 13.

Hoiberg and veteran Pau Gasol, like many within the Bulls organization, said they have been texting with Noah since the injury occurred.

Both teams are doing fairly well at this point of the season and if the playoffs started today, they would be part of the top eight teams in their respective conferences. While Noah will not be back this year, his leadership could still provide value for next year.

It burned in everyone stomach like that devastating day in 2012 when Rose’s career changed and along with it the Bulls’ future.

As a result of such an outstanding season, Noah went on to win the Defensive Player of the Year award; was named to the All-Defensive first team and finished fourth in MVP voting behind Blake Griffin, LeBron James and Kevin Durant.

“I’m frustrated for him”, Bulls power forward Taj Gibson said, via The Chicago Tribune. “But other than basketball I hate to see that happen to a good person like that”, Jimmy Butler said.

We will have much more on Noah as it becomes more clear if this truly is his last season in Chicago. “It hurt just knowing how hard he works, how hard he wants to be on the court, how much he means to this team”.

Cleveland led by 11 at halftime and easily withstood a late Houston run to record the win and end a six-game away stretch during which they went 5-1. There were numerous lead changes that, in this game, might have been aided by the fact that Chicago had played into overtime on Thursday night against the 76ers in Philadelphia.