Butler-less Bulls battered
The Chicago Bulls were severely shorthanded for Sunday’s 117-89 loss to Minnesota. If Jimmy Butler’s heel doesn’t improve quickly, the Eastern Conference could face a similar issue in the All-Star game next weekend.
The Bulls scratched Butler, Dwyane Wade, Nikola Mirotic and Paul Zipser in the loss to the Timberwolves, the final stop of a sixgame road trip.
Wade sat out with a swollen right wrist, Butler has a bruised right heel, Mirotic developed back spasms and Zipser stayed at the team hotel because of an illness.
That left the Bulls with 10 healthy players against Minnesota.
Butler missed three games with a bruised right heel before returning to play 30 minutes in a loss to Phoenix on Friday.
Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said Butler felt “pretty significant soreness” and would be re-evaluated before the team plays Toronto on Tuesday.
He said it was too soon to predict if Butler would be available for the All-Star game in New Orleans on Feb 18.
Butler said it wasn’t a mistake to play in the Suns game even after the injury flared up.
“I love the game,” he said. “I love playing with these guys. I will take that risk.”
Wade had X-rays at Target Center that came back clean. He picked up the injury while bracing a fall in Friday night’s game against Phoenix. The team views his status as day-to-day for the moment.
“I’m just focusing on now,” Wade said when asked if he thinks he will be shut down through the All-Star break.
“Obviously I’ve played through a lot of things, so I can play through it if it’s manageable. But really not today, when I can’t bend it.”
Zipser likely would have missed the game on Sunday anyway with a sore left ankle if he had not fallen ill, and Mirotic came out of the Suns game with back spasms that intensified in Minnesota.
All of the injuries are the latest problems for a Bulls team that has been drowning in dysfunction and distraction this season.
“It seems like the Oklahoma City game was 35 days ago,” Hoiberg said of the first game of the trip, which the Bulls won on Feb 1. “We just have to continue to fight, continue to battle.”