Donovan hints a rest day looms for Bulls' Big 3 originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
MILWAUKEE --- With the Chicago Bulls locked into the 10th seed, Chicago Bulls coach Billy Donovan strongly hinted that Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic will sit out Friday’s road game in Dallas.
“My feeling would be that Zach, DeMar, Vooch, those guys who have logged a lot of minutes, would sit down with medical to determine the game against Dallas,” Donovan said. “The players will have a say-so in that.”
The Bulls then close the regular season at home on Sunday against the Detroit Pistons.
“My feeling is they have to play some against Detroit, unless somebody has an illness or an injury or it’s just not good for them physically. But I think just to take two games off where they’ve been so used to playing every other day or a couple days, that rhythm is important,” Donovan said. “They may not need to play their normal rotation. But they have to be out there unless medical thinks physically this would do this person a lot of good if they don’t play.”
Vucevic hasn’t missed a game this season. LaVine only has missed four and none since Nov. 6, his left knee injury management plan a long-faded storyline. DeRozan only has missed seven games.
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“It’s always a tricky thing because you want to find and keep a rhythm. With that, you don’t want to feel like you’re having too much rest and have rust, especially going into a one-game elimination,” DeRozan said. “I know for me, I never try to think past tomorrow. I take (Wednesday night), see how I feel (Thursday). Come Friday, see how I feel.
“But at some point, definitely going to use it as a rest day, whether I don’t play Dallas or whatever it may be. Something I’ll talk about with the coaching staff, But you want a rhythm, individually and team-wise.”
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LaVine said the medical staff had already broached the topic with him.
“We tried to press the envelope (Wednesday), see what we could do,” LaVine said. “We’ll see what happens. I always want to play.”
