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The Bulls announced today the center Joakim Noah is going to be out the next three weeks in a final effort to heal his foot injury. Noah has been dealing with plantar faciitis for a few weeks now and his condition hasn't improved. After playing 27 minutes against Portland on Friday Noah was bound to miss a lot of time.

It now makes more sense why the Bulls thought it was so important to sign Chris Richard for the rest of the season. Richard will try his best to replace Noah's rebounding and energy, though he obviously isn't close to as good a player as Noah is. Having rebounding will be especially important with solid big men like Marc Gasol, Zach Randolph, Brendan Haywood, and Dwight Howard coming up this week.

The Bulls injury report doesn't end with just Noah though. Luol Deng, Brad Miller, and Derrick Rose all missed practice again today with sore knees. While all three should be able to play tomorrow night against the Grizzlies, it is concerning to see all these injuries in the middle of a playoff race. The tough road ahead demands Rose and Deng be as healthy as possible, as they represent the Bulls only chance of competing against the elite NBA teams.

After getting out-rebounded like crazy against the Hawks last night, the Bulls realized that they needed to bring in another big man to help cover the rebounding void left by Joakim Noah. The Bulls signed Chris Richard again today, this time for the rest of the season, and have released Lindsay Hunter.

Hunter was the oldest active player in the NBA, and more or less was an assistant coach at this point. In true Bulls fashion Hunter won't actually be going anywhere, he just won't be in uniform anymore. My guess is he takes a seat in the second row next to former dynasty point guard Randy Brown.

Richard brings the Bulls a decent rebounder who is active on both sides of the court and can help prevent smaller lineups from being exploited by the good teams coming up these next two weeks. Three guard lineups just don't work against the better teams in the NBA, especially when those guards include Jannero Pargo.

The Bulls next game is Thursday against the Grizzlies.

The Bulls find themselves in the thick of the playoff race with a very important home stand set to begin tonight against the Atlanta Hawks. The Bulls play four games in one week against the Hawks, Memphis Grizzlies, Dallas Mavericks, and Utah Jazz. All four of those teams are above .500 and in their own playoff races, be it for seeding or simply making the final eight.

The Bulls currently sit at 31-28, good enough for sixth in the Eastern Conference right now. They are just one half game back of fifth, and 2.5 ahead of ninth. With the next nine games against teams above .500 (though the Heat currently are below .500 which would make it eight of nine) the Bulls are going to have to prove themselves worthy of making the playoffs. Now would be a bad time to go into one of their slumps of laziness and bad defense.

Sadly the Bulls will have to play much of this difficult stretch without leading rebounder Joakim Noah who is still dealing with a severe case of plantar fasciitis. Noah played 27 minutes on Friday night against Portland (and was a major reason the Bulls won) but that effort cost him a week or two of games. If he's up for it, I don't mind the plan of using Noah once in a while against a good team, but if it is going to set him back a week or two the Bulls need to shut him down completely until he is healthy.

Read more: Key Stretch Begins For Bulls

The Bulls have been playing some really good basketball since the All-Star break ended, and a return to the United Center tonight led to the team's fourth straight win since the break ended. A 122-90 beat down of the Philadelphia 76ers who looked like they quit in the second quarter.

The big story of the night was Kirk Hinrich who broke Ben Gordon's franchise record for three pointers made when he made his 771st career three in the third quarter. Kirk was the subject of a lot of trade rumors this past week, and while I would have liked to see him moved, it is hard to deny he has been a solid Bull his entire career. He's been a big part of the team's resurgent play since he was inserted into the starting lineup, and his defense is always a strong point.

Joakim Noah returned from injury tonight, and played seven minutes. He scored just one point and grabbed only two rebounds, but it was good to see him working himself back into the rotation. The Bulls need Noah healthy if they think they are going to win a first round game or two this year.

Read more: Kirk Hinrich Sets Record in Bulls win