Jimmy Butler out 3-4 weeks with strained left knee

The Chicago Bulls are going to have to look elsewhere for their buckets these next few weeks.

The team announced in a release on Tuesday that star swingman Jimmy Butler is expected to miss the next 3-4 weeks with a strained left knee. He is said to have initially suffered the injury in the second quarter of Friday night’s 115-110 loss to the Denver Nuggets (video here).

Butler, who was named to this year’s Eastern Conference All-Star team as a reserve, will also miss Sunday’s All-Star Game as a result of the injury. The NBA subsequently announced teammate Pau Gasol as Butler’s replacement on the squad.

.@NBA announces @paugasol will replace @JimmyButler on East @NBAAllStar team.

More information to come … pic.twitter.com/BWB47CByku

— NBA.com (@NBAcom) February 9, 2016

There is really no argument that Butler isn’t hands-down the Bulls’ most important player this year. The 26-year-old is averaging 22.4 points per game, 5.2 rebounds per game, and 4.3 assists per game, taking on the lead role for the team on both offense and defense.

At 27-24 on the season, the Bulls are already starting to slip in the Eastern Conference. Once comfortably entrenched as the third seed, a recent rough patch in which they have lost seven of their last 10 games has dropped Chicago to the seventh spot. With Butler going down, the team is in serious peril of falling out of playoff contention.

The Bulls have already faced enough adversity this season with the rumored tension between Butler and teammates as well as with head coach Fred Hoiberg. But a prolonged absence from their irreplaceable star wing is a whole new beast to deal with now.