Bulls' Ball hits snag in rehab, to take 10-day break from running
With Lonzo Ball hitting a snag in his rehab from arthroscopic knee surgery, the Bulls have decided to have him take a 10-day break from running and go from there.
Coach Billy Donovan has said Ball continued to have pain whenever he tried running at full speed, which is likely a remnant of a bone bruise in his left knee.
"It's not like he's sitting around doing nothing," Donovan said before Monday's game. "He's going to do strength training and those kind of things. But take a break on the running and trying to ramp him up. I probably won't have anything more probably until the end of next week."
Ball last played on Jan. 14 and had the arthroscopic procedure roughly two weeks later. The Bulls originally set his return at 6-8 weeks, but by the time his rest period is over, he'll be at the nine-week mark since surgery.
There also won't be many games left in the regular season, although Donovan said the team's medical staff believes if Ball can clear that last hurdle of running and cutting full speed, a return to full-contact practice could happen relatively quickly.
"We can't even get him into that until he gets over that hump," Donovan said. "So I don't want to speculate what may or may not happen after 10 days."
Williams checks in:
Patrick Williams made it all the way back from left wrist surgery on Monday, playing for the first time since Oct. 28. At the morning shootaround, he talked about coming off the bench after starting early this season.
"I'm fine with it, as long as I can contribute to the team," Williams said, according to NBC Sports Chicago. "After being out for five months, you only have one wish and that's to play again. When you're playing, you have 100 different wishes - 'I wish I could have made this shot. I wish I could have did this better. I wish I could have did that better.' - but when you're out, you just have one wish and that's to play again."
Williams was also asked about missing the majority of his NBA season.
"It definitely doesn't feel like a lost season because I learned so much," he said. "I didn't learn, of course, on the court. But from the film, just from being around the team, from watching the games on the sidelines, being able to pick apart different things that you can't really see when you're playing."
Play-in looms:
The Bulls and Toronto are both vying to stay out of the play-in tournament, which is the fate of teams that finish in the No. 7 through 10 seeds.
"For me, I'm really hopeful we can get in the playoff, one way or another," Raptors coach Nick Nurse said. "I really think we need to experience that with this young group. So that's all I'm trying to do is get in as many playoff games as we can play, just so our guys can experience that level of prep and intensity and all the stuff that goes with it."
Added Bulls coach Billy Donovan, "The bottom line is, against these better teams we've got to play at a much higher level than we've played at. You can talk about it, but until we actually go out there and do it, it really doesn't make a difference."
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