‘A LOT OF MOVING PARTS’
Trend reversing for virus cases after postponements
The Chicago Bulls have a light at the end of the COVID-19 tunnel, but they still are a long way off of recovering from the outbreak that forced a weeklong schedule stoppage.
The NBA postponed two games this week — at home against the Detroit Pistons on Tuesday and on the road against the Toronto Raptors on Thursday — after a 10th Bulls player entered the league’s COVID-19 health and safety protocols.
After the Bulls returned from Miami last weekend, the team has been strictly limited to avoid contact and reduce potential spread. Coach Billy Donovan said no more players or staff members have entered the protocols, offering the team hope the pause might have quelled the outbreak.
Javonte Green and Coby White will be the first two players to return, bringing the team’s roster back up to 10 available players ahead of Sunday’s home game against the Los Angeles Lakers. Green was cleared to return to activity Wednesday and White returned earlier this week.
Despite the additions, the Bulls roster remains gutted by the virus with stars such as DeMar DeRozan stuck at home. Guard Zach LaVine is expected to be out until after Christmas, Donovan said, along with Ayo Dosunmu, Alize Johnson and Troy Brown Jr.
Donovan said the Bulls are still waiting for clearance from the league to practice together for the first time in nearly a week.
“I’m hopeful the league will give us some time here Friday and Saturday to get the group back together that would be available to play on Sunday,” Donovan said. “We really haven’t been able to do much at all.”
The Bulls saw 10 players enter the league’s protocols in only 13 days: White (Dec. 1), Green (Dec. 3), DeMar DeRozan (Dec. 5), Matt Thomas (Dec. 7), Derrick Jones Jr. (Dec. 9), Ayo Dosunmu and Stanley Johnson (Saturday), Zach LaVine and Tony Brown Jr. (Sunday) and Alize Johnson (Monday). Broadcasters Stacey King and Bill Wennington also entered protocols amid the outbreak, and center Nikola Vučević previously spent 11 days in isolation after testing positive Nov. 11.
Donovan said the majority of the players were asymptomatic, but the last two weeks still represent the most thorough outbreak experienced by any team in the NBA.
The Bulls were the first team this season to necessitate game postponements because of COVID-19, but that could change in coming weeks as players throughout the league continue to test positive.
More than 30 NBA players are currently in the league’s protocols, with the majority of cases clustered in team outbreaks — seven on the Brooklyn Nets, three on the Lakers, four on the New York Knicks and three on the Milwaukee Bucks. That list includes stars Giannis Antetokounmpo and James Harden.
The Sacramento Kings are the most recent team to experience an outbreak, with multiple players and staff members testing positive Thursday, according to the Athletic’s Shams Charania.
The league increased its testing following Thanksgiving with the goal of preventing outbreaks amid the holidays, which already have contributed to a surge of cases nationwide. Donovan said this increase is what led to White’s test, which then triggered daily testing for the Bulls throughout their outbreak.
The coach noted that testing has been different team-to-team depending on their results at the start of the month, which could be disguising similar positives in other teams throughout the league.
“I don’t know where the league stands right now going into more holidays here with Christmas and New Year’s (or) what they’ll actually do leaguewide in terms of testing,” Donovan said. “But I do know certainly ... not every team was testing under the same premise that we were testing under. So everybody was kind of in different situations.”
There’s a slight silver lining to this week’s pause, which has given a beleaguered Bulls roster the chance to catch its breath.
Alex Caruso missed two games amid the outbreak with a strained right hamstring. LaVine is still nursing his thumb injury. Other players simply were overworked during the outbreak — Lonzo Ball, for instance, averaged 38.6 minutes as he shouldered increased defensive and ballhandling responsibilities throughout those five games.
Without games or even access to team facilities, this week forced players to slow down.
“Hopefully it gives those guys an opportunity to get their bodies a chance to recover some,” Donovan said. “So if there is a blessing, that part of it is good for some of those guys — the ones that were absorbing a lot of minutes or guys that were dealing with some ailing things that they needed to get treated.”
As the Bulls focus on recovery, the NBA is still attempting to navigate increased positive tests as COVID-19 variants drive a nationwide surge.
The NBA instated a new policy last Friday emphasizing the booster shot, which the league and the
NBA Players Association have been pushing for players and staff to receive for weeks. This policy restricts team staff members who haven’t received their booster shots from in-person access to players, coaches and referees and from attending road trips. Players without booster shots will be required to undergo game-day testing and could face additional testing in the coming weeks.
Donovan declined to specify which players or coaches have received the booster shot, but Vučević said after Saturday’s game that most of his teammates have received them. Vučević won’t be able to receive his booster for several months because of his bout with the virus in November.
Booster shots mitigate
the risks of COVID-19 and can more effectively combat new variants such as delta and omicron, but they can’t prevent contraction entirely. With more players testing positive daily, Donovan said the league is in flux for its next steps to continue the season.
“The league is doing everything they can do to play games and at the same time keep people healthy,” Donovan said. “A lot of it is going to depend on vaccination. Have you been vaccinated? Did you get a booster shot? If you do that, how many times you need negative tests? There have been some inconclusive tests where you had guys test positive and then the next test is negative and you have to come back. There are a lot of moving parts with all this.”