By Dave Ryan
Luol Deng returned to action on Thursday night, but he couldn’t prevent Chicago Bulls going down to a 105-96 home loss against Memphis Grizzlies.

Picture courtesy & copyright of NBAE/Getty Images.
The team GB captain led his side with 23 points off a 9/16 shooting night in 42 minutes of action. He was perfect at the foul line, and added six boards, two assists, as many steals and a block but couldn’t prevent the Bulls slipping to 31-30.
Zach Randolph, taking advantage of the Bulls’ complete lack of an inside game, scored 31 points and grabbed 18 rebounds and the Grizzlies came back from a 16-point first quarter deficit to take command in the fourth quarter and inflict Chicago’s third straight defeat.
Chicago led32-19 at the first break, but that was as good as it got as Memphis narrowed the gap to 51-45 at half-time and 77-75 at the final break before taking control in the last stanza.
Bulls host in-form Dallas Mavericks on Saturday before Utah Jazz visit the United Centre on Tuesday, and they are now down to seventh spot in the Eastern Conference.
Meanwhile, it doesn’t get any better for Ben Gordon and the Detroit Pistons as they went down 128-104 at New York Knicks on Wednesday.
Gordon finished with ten points and a couple of assists in 23 minutes.
Knicks led 67-55 half time lead behind a combined 39 points from Tracy McGrady, Al Harrington and Bill Walker, but although they led by as many as 14 points in the second half, Detroit cut it to 80-75 on a dunk by Jason Maxiell late in the third period
New York went into the final break leading 94-85 and ensured that Pistons would go down to their fifth straight loss with a 34-19 fourth period.
The result saw the injury-hit Pistons fall below Knicks into 13th place in the Eastern Conference with a 21-40 record. They visit Cleveland on Friday before hosting Houston Rockets on Sunday.