DeMar DeRozan injury update: Bulls star out Thursday vs. Pelicans with groin strain

This is the fifth game DeRozan has missed this season and the first because of an injury

Chicago Bulls star DeMar DeRozan won't play against the New Orleans Pelicans on Thursday because of a left adductor strain. The team added him to the injury report as "questionable" on Wednesday, and on Thursday afternoon announced that he is out. This will be DeRozan's fifth absence of the season and his first because of injury. He missed three games in December after testing positive for COVID-19 and being placed in health and safety protocols, and he sat out on the second night of a back-to-back in January for rest.

This is not an ideal time for DeRozan to be out of the lineup. The Bulls have lost nine of their last 12 games, and they've had a particularly tough time on the road. They are coming off a 126-98 loss in Milwaukee, and, after their game in New Orleans, they will visit the Cleveland Cavaliers, New York Knicks and Washington Wizards before returning home. At 42-30, Chicago has fallen to fifth in the East, only one game ahead of the sixth-place Cavaliers and two games ahead of the seventh-place Toronto Raptors.

On the season, the Bulls have scored 115.7 points per 100 possessions with DeRozan on the court and just 108.8 per 100 with him off the court, per Cleaning The Glass, which removes garbage-time minutes and heaves. That's essentially the difference between the Memphis Grizzlies' third-ranked offense and the Los Angeles Clippers' 26th-ranked offense. DeRozan is averaging a career-high 27.6 points, plus 5.3 rebounds and 5.0 assists this season, numbers which will likely land him on an All-NBA team. 

Chicago welcomed forward Patrick Williams back this week from a wrist injury that had kept him out of the lineup since October. Guard Lonzo Ball however, had a setback trying to return from a knee injury, and is a few days into a 10-day rest period in which he will not run at all. Zach LaVine, DeRozan's co-star on the wing, is playing through a knee issue, and was initially listed as "probable" for the Pelicans game with knee soreness. (LaVine is now expected to play.) Now the Bulls must hope that DeRozan's groin injury will not be a lingering problem.