CHICAGO – Chicago Bulls forward Luol Deng was inactive Saturday night against the Detroit Pistons because his sore left Achilles’ flared up.

Deng is second on the Bulls with 18.1 points per game. He missed three games earlier this month with the same injury, and said it began to bother him again in the fourth quarter of Friday night’s loss to Golden State.

“It just flared up. I tried to ice it all night and again this morning,” Deng said. “I didn’t even think after the game yesterday – I mean it was little sore – but I didn’t think I would wake up and it would all be flared up.”

The Bulls were playing their fourth game in five nights Saturday.

“Since he’s had the injury it’s kind of stayed with him,” Bulls interim coach Jim Boylan said. “It gets better on occasion and he can play, and then it comes back.

“It’s something we have not been able to get a full handle on, so it’s a problem. But we have so many games, and not a lot of time to rest him.”