Bulls' Noah could remain on minutes restriction for remainder of season

The Chicago Bulls have taken a tentative approach with center Joakim Noah in an effort to rest his surgically-repaired left knee.

Noah barely saw any court time in the last half of the fourth quarter Sunday, a 109-100 loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder. 

"I ran out of minutes with him," Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters when asked why Noah was absent during crunch time. 

Thibodeau said Noah's minutes are being capped at 32 per game. He added that he's been given no indication that it will be lifted before the season is up, according to ESPN's Nick Friedell. 

The plan coming into the season was to monitor Noah and point guard Derrick Rose's workload and keep their minutes limited, as both former All-Stars were coming off knee operations. It seemed like the minutes cap was lifted in recent weeks - when Noah saw an uptick in action - only to be enforced again. 

Noah has played 31 minutes or fewer in each of his last six games. He also sat out one contest because of soreness in the left knee. 

The cautious approach doesn't appear to be sitting well with Noah, who declined to talk to reporters after the game. He had 15 points and seven assists in the loss. 

Noah entered Sunday averaging 7.5 points and 9.9 rebounds, while shooting a career-low 43.4 percent from the field. He's logging 30.8 minutes per game after being above the 35-minute mark in each of the last two seasons.