Taj Gibson injury: Bulls PF has sprained MCL, could miss up to 2 weeks

The hits just keep on coming for a Bulls team that has been ravaged by injuries of late, which has helped contribute to their recent stretch of god-awful play. The latest victim is Taj Gibson, who sprained his left knee in the hideous loss to the Thunder. The Chicago Tribune's K.C. Johnson has an update on Gibson, who underwent an MRI on Monday:

At least Gibson's MRI didn't reveal a torn ACL, although it did confirm a sprained MCL that could sideline the defensive-minded forward up to two weeks.

Gibson went down early in the fourth quarter while attempting to hedge on a screen. It looked like he may have stepped on Kevin Martin's foot and that caused the knee to twist awkwardly. Gibson seemed to be in a lot of pain and tried to shake it off on the next possession, but he really couldn't run and was removed from the game. Smartly (or maybe just because it was a blowout), Fred didn't clear him.

This is certainly no good for a squad that is already thin up front and whose frontcourt players have all recently dealt with injuries. Joakim Noah (plantar fasciitis), Luol Deng (hamstring, wrist?) and Carlos Boozer (hamstring) have all missed time in the past month, and they all have struggled when they actually have played.

If Gibson misses a few weeks, that will just put an extra burden on those guys, which likely won't help the situation as the schedule doesn't get much easier. Tom Thibodeau may have to suck it up and go with more Nazr Mohammed (vomits) or Vladimir Radmanovic (jumps off a cliff), or perhaps the Bulls look to sign another big. They could grab one now on a 10-day contract or wait until March 3 to sign one for the rest of the year.