For a handful of minutes in the second half of Tuesday’s loss to the Oklahoma City Thunder, the Chicago Bulls seemed to be facing a worst-case scenario.
It began when Josh Giddey came up limping after rolling his ankle with barely a minute left in the third quarter. The guard tried his best to play through the pain — attempting a 3-pointer after hobbling out to the perimeter — but quickly accepted a sub from Matas Buzelis.
Giddey barely had time to make it to the locker room before his replacement suffered the same fate. Buzelis rolled his ankle while stepping on a Thunder player’s shoe under the basket, immediately coming up with a limp. He managed to square up for a few seconds of defense before the Bulls were whistled for a foul, giving Buzelis an opportunity to awkwardly hustle his way to the locker room.
By the time Buzelis rolled his ankle, the Bulls were already trailing the reigning NBA champions by 16 points. Giddey returned for a brief 5-minute, 28-second stint in the fourth quarter before he reached the ceiling of his playing time restriction for a lingering hamstring strain, forcing coach Billy Donovan to pull the plug for good.
But Buzelis never returned to the court, leaving the Bulls to face a looming concern about yet another key injury as they prepare for a five-game road trip on the West Coast.
After the game, Buzelis said he was hopeful to return for Thursday’s game in Phoenix. The forward has been notably hardy in his early tenure with the Bulls, playing every game of his sophomore season. Buzelis said the Bulls had not set a recovery plan in the initial hour following the injury, but said the pain wasn’t “really bad.”
“You guys know I don’t like missing games so I think I’ll be ready,” Buzelis said. “I want to play every game so we’ll see how it feels and we’ll go from there.”
Photos: Oklahoma City Thunder 116, Chicago Bulls 108
The Bulls are already playing without five key players — Zach Collins (season-ending toe surgery), Jalen Smith (right calf), Patrick Williams (quad strain), Jaden Ivey (knee) and Anfernee Simons (wrist) — as they attempt to navigate the final stretch of the season. But the availability of Buzelis is the key to this period, which is designed to give the forward a higher volume of reps to supplement his growth as a future centerpiece for the Bulls roster.
The Thunder weren’t faring any better, playing without reigning MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander and Jalen Williams. Despite shooting less than 24% from 3-point range, Oklahoma City held off the Bulls with relative ease due to balanced scoring from rotation players like Jared McCain (20 points) and Isaiah Joe (19 points).