Bucks guard Holiday returns to practice
Jrue Holiday took another step in returning to play for the Milwaukee Bucks on Saturday when he was able to practice for the first time, according to head coach Mike Budenholzer.
“It's great to have him be able to mix it up in practice and go through things, walk through things, get closer to a return,” Budenholzer said. “Since, whatever that was three, four, five days ago (against Sacramento on Feb. 21) just having him around has been great.”
Holiday has been in the NBA's health and safety protocol since Feb. 8 and has begun to work through the stages of the protocol the last week. Saturday's practice was notable in that it's the first time Holiday has been able to do on-court work in that team fashion since he last played, which was in Cleveland on Feb. 6.
Last week Holiday was able to go through individual work, but the Bucks did not practice on Wednesday or Friday. He was at shootaround on Thursday.
“There's a certain element of when you come off of kind of two weeks of inactivity then you've got to condition, you've got to kind of get yourself prepared to play in an NBA game,” Budenholzer said. “I think he's in that phase of the health and safety protocols of just getting himself where he's fit and ready to play in an NBA game.”
As for Sunday's matinee against Los Angeles at Fiserv Forum, Budenholzer said the team will evaluate Holiday's status later Saturday afternoon, but is likely Holiday will be considered doubtful to play against the Clippers.