The final day of each NBA season often features the lengthiest injury reports of the year as teams rest their stars to settle in for the postseason.
The Bulls followed that trend in Sunday’s 124-120 victory in the regular-season finale against the Minnesota Timberwolves, benching four starters for the 82nd game of the season — DeMar DeRozan, Zach LaVine, Nikola Vučević and Alex Caruso.
Resting the starters allowed secondary players to build confidence heading into the playoffs. Patrick Williams (35 points) and Ayo Dosunmu (26) had career-high scoring nights, both playing more than 40 minutes.
Coach Billy Donovan approached the game as a growth opportunity for both players, calling frequent timeouts to direct their decision making without the usual starters on the court.
“They’ve got to learn as young players how to manage themselves inside the game with those guys,” Donovan said. “In a lot of ways, DeMar and Zach can take some of that pressure off of Ayo. But today he was the sole primary guard, and having to organize all of that was probably a little bit of a different feeling for him tonight.”
Some of the Bulls scratches were expected. They mathematically couldn’t budge from the No. 6 seed, so playing a full-strength lineup with DeRozan and Vučević only would have risked fatigue and injury for two keys to the team’s postseason success.
But other names on the injury report serve as looming question marks for the Bulls in the playoffs — primarily Caruso and LaVine, whose health could determine how far the Bulls can go.
LaVine’s knee became a point of concern when he missed the last two games before the All-Star break to seek treatment in Los Angeles for soreness and tightness. Nearly two months later, the Bulls don’t have any more answers about the guard’s health heading into the postseason.
To his credit, LaVine has maintained nearly identical offensive production — 24.4 points and 4.5 assists per game — before and after the All-Star break. But his shooting percentages have dropped as an uncharacteristic timidness has crept in during several games.
Meanwhile, Caruso is fighting through back spasms, sitting out a game last week and wearing a heat pack during breaks on the sideline. The guard asked out of the third quarter of the Bulls’ loss to the Miami Heat on April 2 after the pain moved up between his shoulder blades, resulting in a sharp pain whenever he collided with other players.
Even when Caruso isn’t visibly nursing the injury, Donovan said it’s easy to tell the defensive specialist — who stole the ball only once in the last three games — is playing at a fraction of his typical intensity.
After sitting for two games, Caruso will return to practice this week to ramp up into the playoffs. If he’s still limited, the Bulls might need to rely more heavily on Dosunmu, who took over point guard duties earlier this season.
Donovan used Sunday’s game to focus on Dosunmu’s ability to direct the offense, calling two timeouts in the opening two minutes of the second half to instruct the rookie after multiple turnovers.
“(Dosunmu) is great in terms of coaching because he always responds,” Donovan said. “It was really a tough night for him, but the way he kept his head in the game … it speaks to his maturity and competitiveness.
“He just gets lost in competing. Sometimes guys get frustrated, they get down, they hang their head. He never does that.”
For his part, DeRozan isn’t a fan of rest games — and he hasn’t needed them this season. The veteran forward understands the need to care for his body, joking after a midseason game that all he does after games is ”go home and sit down” now that he’s in his 30s. But DeRozan isn’t prone to taking breaks unless he feels his body is in distress.
“I don’t need no time off,” he said after Tuesday’s loss to the Milwaukee Bucks. “I hate sitting too long. I love playing. … I’m kind of weird when it comes to that. You’re not supposed to feel too good. I hate feeling too good. Some of my best games came when I felt like I got jumped by 10 media people.”
DeRozan took a game off last week after feeling discomfort in his groin — which he always treats carefully after a torn adductor in 2014. He will finish the season having missed only six games, four of them during the leaguewide COVID-19 outbreak in December.
DeRozan’s ability to dodge injuries this season serves as a rare bright light for the Bulls during a season in which hopes were routinely dashed by the injury report.
The Bulls waited until this week to shut down Lonzo Ball for the season after January surgery for a torn meniscus, ending months of hope that the guard could return for a last-minute boost to the roster. Ball’s injury was a core part of the revolving door of starting guards for the Bulls, who swapped four players into the starting point guard role the last two months.
With Caruso’s and LaVine’s injuries ongoing, the Bulls might have to continue this trend of adaptable lineups in the postseason.
“We’ve dealt with all this for so long,” Donovan said. “You try to have a level of optimism … but this is just how it’s been for us this year.”
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