Bulls guards Lonzo Ball (knee) and Alex Caruso (wrist) did individual, non-contact work at the team’s practice on Sunday, K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago tweets. Joining them was forward Patrick Williams (wrist), who hasn’t played since October.
Caruso will need to be checked by a doctor again before being cleared for contact, coach Billy Donovan said. Still, all three players are now traveling with the team, Johnson adds (Twitter link).
Chicago next plays at Philadelphia on Monday. Johnson notes the club hasn’t decided if Ball, Caruso and Williams will continue traveling to Detroit on Wednesday, as they could benefit more from rehabbing at home before the team returns Saturday.
Here are some other notes from the Central Division:
- Bulls star Nikola Vucevic didn’t practice on Saturday due to hamstring tightness, according to K.C. Johnson (Twitter link). Vucevic did weightlifting work and is listed as questionable to play against Philadelphia on Monday. He finished with 19 points, nine rebounds and two steals in a loss to the Bucks on Friday.
- Chris Fedor of Cleveland.com examines how Kevin Love — a strong candidate for Sixth Man of the Year — found his basketball joy again. Love has revitalized his career with the Cavaliers this season, averaging 13.9 points and 7.1 rebounds in 22.1 minutes per game. He’s also shot 38.9% from three-point range, which is his highest mark since the 2017/18 campaign.
- Pistons guard Frank Jackson (spine) will see a specialist and miss at least one more week, James Edwards III of The Athletic tweets. Jackson is receiving further evaluation after missing two straight games. He’s averaged a career-high 10.7 points per game this season.
It’s no coincidence that Love “miraculously” found his basketball joy this season …….. the CAVS got good this year, owing to a stronger, more balanced roster.
He’s look like a fool if he pouted more the from the bench this season.
Mobley, Laurie with Allen, is more than a decent frontline. Sexton’s injury actually did some good, as it did away with their horrible 2-small PG experiment from last season and got the right guy, Garland, in the lead role.
Altman deserves most of the credit for the CAVS rise this season.
So your point is you think Love is happier because he now is on a good team. Thanks for the insight.
Rookie Patrick Williams???
So where are the Love bashers now. Love has always had gm. The Cavs sucked was the problem. That’s what real bigs and a real PG can do to right the ship. Garland should have always been the choice. Too bad it took an injury for them to see that.
They never blocked Garland. But, since running guard solo, Garland has developed a bad back. Rubio originally got the offense going by involving the bigs and carrying the weight of defense and handling while Garland and Sexton picked their spots.
Lavert cannot do this; he is also a spot-picker.
All the people saying the Cavs mostly needed wings… maybe someday.
Bickerstaff, master blender!
They always played Sexton first. Cause he was a 20 pt scorer. Tried playing them both. Which was a bad idea. They never gave the reigns to Garland. Not until Sexton went down. And now had no choice. Sometimes life decides for you. Garland is a true PG. Absolutely the right choice. Cavs can get good value for Sexton.
@Knick
What the heck are you talking about? Garland was a starter from the very beginning. He’s started 159 of his 163 nba games. He was ALWAYS the lead PG. You have no idea what you’re talking about with regards to the Cavs. And there’s nothing to suggest that the struggles they had prior to this year was because of the two playing at the same time. The big difference is the combo of Allen, Mobley and to some extent, Markkanen. Both Garland and Sexton (disregarding the 11 games this season he played) have been better. It’s called maturation. Both guys have seen improvements in each of their first 3 seasons.
@Knicks
Ppl seem to create drama where it doesn’t exist. As @x%sure states, it was never a one or the other. Garland was the starting PG from the jump. Sexton, despite improving his assist numbers each year to 4.5 last year is much better suited as the SG. He’s much better suited to be a scorer than facilitator but can do so in short spans. I would love to see what they can be with the bigs protecting the paint.
Love was ABSOLUTELY to blame last year. He was hurt, out of shape from lack of activity, saw himself as a starter and was not being a good vet leader to Sexton. Call it a reality check or whatever but once he understood his lack of market value and the ease in which the Cavs brought in Allen, Mobley and Markkanen he changed his ‘tude and came into the season with the right mindset and embraced his new role. I think he would admit that he had the wrong attitude last year and thst whole Olympics training camp fiasco was likely a wake up call.
The two yrs they played. Both avg over 32 mins. And both yrs were a bad team. Garland was putting up less than 12 shots a gm. Sexton was putting up more than 17 shots a gm. Even Cavs players then complained about Sexton going for his stats. Cavs are fools if they do t move Sexton.
@Knicks
@Garland in his first 3 seasons has shot 12, 15 and 16 shots per game.
@Those same year’s Sexton shot 16.4 (2nd season) then 18 last year. Not much of a difference. It’s called responsibility. It’s his responsibility to score, especially since he’s not handling the main point guard responsibilities. However, Garland has to shoulder some of those duties thus he’s averaging 16 fga pg now that Sexton is out.
c) I never understood this idea that he’s a ball hog. He has to score. He’s NOT a volume 2 dimensional shooter without conscious like Westbrook. A career line of 46/38/83 is fantastic. But name me 1 top scorer not averaging 16-20 shots per game. Shouldn’t their efficiency be the greater concern? A shooting guard averaging 4.5 assists per game is in line with Beal, Donovan and CJ. Sexton simply has to spend time with the rest of the squad and find his rhythm and figure out the right times to shoot, facilitate or defer.
When the team that drafted you tells you to shoot the ball and those complaining are the likes of Tristan, JR Smith and a then struggling to stay on court Love (shooting 38% then) I’m not worried. His rookie season was an organizational mind fudge caught up in between the Ty Lue + vets trying to prove they can remain competitive post Lebron and the other half wanting to move on, rebuild and let the wildcat thru just drafted loose and give the fans something to get excited for. The “leaders” tried to walk the line between being competitive with vets and rebuilding and living with rookie mistakes. That’s on them, not Sexton. He’s exceeded the skills they thought he had coming out of college by developing into a good 3pt 3 tier scorer. They told the vets one thing and quickly moved on once they saw what a sanz LBJ team looked like. Not the kids fault. Sexton experienced the same jealousy Lebron faced with Ricky Davis, Carlos Boozer and other vets his rookie year. Give Love credit. He read the writing on the wall. Cavs couldn’t trade him and were prepared to sit him behind Allen, Mobley and Markkanen.
KnickerbockerAL never gets the Cavs, nor watches much apparently, yet opins freely.
AL wastes so much space yet all he’s doing is yakking blindly into a microphone. And he wonders why people aren’t asking him questions.
AL thinks he is involved in decisionmaking, or GMs, at least in NY, heed him. As if the Knicks need somebody else adding their voice!
Sexton is supposed to be shooting… Put his head down and go. That does not make him the decisionmaker. He has not been that for some time. I doubt AL knows why teammates might complain about Sexton.
That whole dual point guard line up with with Sexton and Garland on the court together just didn’t make sense. Garland even when they drafted him seemed like a more natural point guard that would score well and lead the team in assists with good playmaking skills. Sexton was definitely a score first point guard that liked to play up tempo, in your face and gritty basketball. The two were never a match.
Be interesting to see how Sexton FA plays out. Not that he’s a bad player he just wasn’t a match with Garland. I think he’s still really talented and works well in a lot of places.
It would make a lot more sense with Markkanan, Mobley and Allen. The Garland Rubio line up with those 3 for the whole season could have been a 3 seed.
@QB1
His play was inconsistent in his brief srason but the Cavs were 7-4 when Sexton was in the lineup. Garland missed 2 games to injuries but recorded 3 double doubles in the other 9 games so it seems worthy of a longer look.
Garland and now Sexton are both signed to Klutch so it’ll be interesting to see how this plays out.
@Qb1
I originally misunderstood your post. I agree with you. A threesome involving Sexton and Garland with a physically strong and taller backup PG would work wonderfully with the three 7ft menage of Allen, Mobley and Markkanen.
Sexland can still work. Not sure why ppl miss the concept of a PG and SG? It didn’t turn into wins in Portland with Dame and CJ because the rest of the team sucked. The fact that Garland has a history of injuries should make the Cavs give pause to just trade him. Sexton isn’t a great facilitator but he can take some ball handling responsibilities off of Garland and can get buckets.
I think they have max $15 mil to spend, maybe. That would leave $9 mil for four spots before the luxury tax level.
That’s cutting it close!