The Bulls could breathe a sigh of relief on Saturday, as initial feelings with the LaVine knee injury proved to be true. The All-Star guard left Friday’s loss to Golden State in the first quarter with discomfort in the knee, and the hope was it was a minor setback.
The Bulls couldn’t avoid another embarrassing performance on national television on Friday, but they did avoid a catastrophic injury to their season.
The team confirmed initial reports on the Zach LaVine left knee injury, saying that his Saturday MRI showed no structural damage for the All-Star guard. He will be reassessed next week, and a better timeline will be made available.
That’s a huge sigh of relief for the Bulls, who despite back-to-back blow-out losses, sat atop the Eastern Conference, thanks in large part to the play of DeMar DeRozan and LaVine.
It was in the first quarter in the eventual 138-96 loss to Golden State that LaVine grabbed an offensive rebound and later told his coach that he felt discomfort in the knee that was surgically repaired back in 2017, when he tore his anterior cruciate ligament.
Rather than force the issue, LaVine committed the intentional foul to get the stoppage, and headed straight to the locker room with trainer Arnold Lee. Billy Donovan did confirm after the game that LaVine had been dealing with normal soreness that comes with an NBA season in mid-January, but nothing with the knee that was concerning enough to keep him sidelined.
That obviously changed for LaVine after grabbing the rebound.
The initial feeling throughout the franchise, however, was the injury was a small setback for his season rather than a long-term concern, and the MRI showed that was the case.
LaVine will be a free agent this offseason, and has hundreds of millions on the line. Dealing with knee soreness and swelling for the last month when it was just maintenance and time spent with the training staff was one thing, according to a source, but the feeling he had with the knee Friday was next level.
Meanwhile, LaVine did not travel to Boston for Saturday night’s showdown with the Celtics and the start of a two-game road trip, leaving the Bulls to continue that next-man-up mentality.
Although, these are some big shoes to fill.
Much like he did last season, LaVine has been one of the more efficient scorers in the NBA, averaging 24.9 points per game and doing so by shooting 49.1% from the field and 41.2% from three-point range.
What’s excited the organization, though, is what he’s also evolved into in Year 2 with Donovan on the defensive side of the basketball.
Still, in a no-excuses league, Donovan wasn’t about to make excuses for his team moving forward without LaVine.
“There’s enough for us to compete better than we did [Friday],’’ Donovan said. “We have to build habits as a team on the things that we can control – transition defense, communication, blocking out, pulling across, taking care of the ball. Those are things that have nothing to do with injuries and people being out.’’
from Chicago Sun-Times - All https://ift.tt/3A4indC
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