Chicago Bulls big man Joakim Noah missed practice for a second straight day Tuesday and will miss the game Wednesday against the Brooklyn Nets due to an ankle injury, the team announced. 

Noah initially suffered the ankle injury last week against the Dallas Mavericks. The reigning Defensive Player of the Year rolled his right ankle toward the end of regulation and left the game momentarily, but he returned and wound up playing 36 minutes in a 132-129 double-overtime loss.


 

The next night in Charlotte, Noah rolled the same ankle and again went down in pain. This time, he stayed in the game and still managed to be rather productive despite being visibly limited physically. There was a trip to the locker room to get checked out, but he returned to the game and played 32 minutes in a 102-95 victory. 

The Bulls had two days off before returning to the court against the red-hot Golden State Warriors on Saturday. Noah finished with 16 points on 7-of-8 shooting, but he was a liability on defense against Draymond Green. Noah struggled to get out to the three-point line to guard Green, and the Warriors power forward took advantage of the numerous quality looks. Green scored a career-high 31 points and went 7-of-13 from three-point land. 

Noah has since missed two days of practice and admitted the ankle was still bothering him, according to K.C. Johnson of the Chicago Tribune. Noah said he wants to be smart about the injury because it's a long season, and while that's good to hear, it's a shame that mindset wasn't taken when the injury first occurred.

 

Noah is still recovering from offseason knee surgery, and it probably would have been best to not return to the Mavericks game. Or perhaps he should have sat out against Charlotte. At the very least, he shouldn't have returned against the Hornets after rolling the ankle again. Sure, he played well that night, but he's lucky something worse didn't happen. 

Noah himself said he wanted to play through the injury, and the player will usually have that mindset. It's often up to the training and coaching staff to save a player from himself, but that didn't happen here. The Bulls' training staff cleared Noah to return in both games, and head coach Tom Thibodeau naturally had no problems inserting him back into the lineup. 

It's tough to completely blame Thibodeau for playing Noah when the training staff cleared him, but you can pin some blame on the head coach for not making more adjustments against Green in the Warriors loss. It was pretty clear that Noah wasn't able to effectively defend Green out to the three-point line, and yet, the wide open looks kept happening over and over. 

This matchup exposed an issue with the Noah/Pau Gasol pairing. While both players are super skilled, having them on the court together isn't always ideal defensively. Gasol is better defending centers, which leaves Noah guarding power forwards. Against more traditional frontcourts, this isn't a problem. But against stretch 4's like Green, Noah is forced out of his comfort zone in the paint. This is especially troublesome when Noah is dealing with injuries and doesn't have full mobility. 

I can't imagine Thibodeau changing the starting lineup when everybody is healthy, but it's worth noting that the Gasol/Taj Gibson pairing and Noah/Nikola Mirotic pairing have both been really good in their minutes this season. Lineups with Gasol and Gibson have outscored opponents by 17.5 points per 100 possession in 142 minutes this season, while lineups with Noah and Mirotic have outscored opponents by 13.0 points per 100 possessions in 91 minutes, per NBA.com. 

On the surface, these pairings look like a better fit because both of them have a natural center playing with a natural power forward. Again, I can't imagine Thibodeau changing up the starting lineup because it would be difficult to push Noah or Gasol to the bench, but these numbers provide some food for thought for future in-game lineup combinations when everybody is healthy. 

In other injury news, Doug McDermott will miss his fourth straight game with a knee issue. Johnson reported that McDermott was re-examined by team physician Dr. Brian Cole over the weekend, and that although the injury is "minor," there was some swelling in the knee that's keeping the rookie out.