The medical staff has spoken.
With the Bulls locking down the No. 10 seed – and final play-in spot – of the Eastern Conference in Wednesday’s loss to Milwaukee, coach Billy Donovan was more than flirting with the idea of sitting some starters against the Mavericks.
By Friday afternoon, he was married to it.
Zach LaVine, DeMar DeRozan, and Patrick Beverley, were each held out of the game in Dallas, given the night off to heal up and prepare for the regular-season finale on Sunday, and then of course the chase for a play-off spot.
Alex Caruso did get the nod, but with a limited workload.
It didn’t come as much of a surprise, especially since LaVine said the medical staff was already running that plan by him after the Bucks game.
“We tried to press the envelope [Wednesday], see what we could do,’’ LaVine said. “I always want to play.’’
LaVine will get his chance this weekend, and will love the opponent. In his three previous games against the Pistons this season, the two-time All-Star has averaged 38 points per game, while shooting 65% from the field and 54.2% from three-point range.
Quite the warm-up heading into a one-game, loser-goes-home showdown on Wednesday.
“My feeling is they have to play some against Detroit unless obviously someone has an injury,’’ Donovan said of the plan for the final two regular-season games. “I think to take two games off where they are so used to playing, I think that rhythm is important. I’m not saying they have to play their normal rotation, but they’ve got to be out there I would think unless medical feels physically it would do a lot of good if they didn’t play [the Pistons] game.’’
Don’t expect to see the starters very long against Detroit, however.
It could easily be a first-half showcase, with the Bulls then having Monday and Tuesday to practice and get some scrimmage runs in.
Considering what Caruso has gone through with his mid-foot sprain, as well as the hip/thigh that’s been bothering DeRozan since January, it’s better to be cautious than sorry.
“It’s always tricky because you want to find and keep a rhythm and you don’t want to feel you are having too much rest, have rust going into a one-game elimination,’’ DeRozan said. “It is tricky, but I never try to think past tomorrow.
“For the most part, we’ve got to have a rhythm individually and team-wise we’ll talk about that.’’
Mirror, mirror …
Statistically, Coby White’s game took minor steps forward this season, but the eye test has shown that he’s playing the best basketball of his career. A point he agreed on.
Besides adding muscle to play with more physicality on both ends, White improved his decision making and his ball handling.
“Playing in tight spaces, setting up pick-and-rolls, trusting my handle,’’ White said of the difference in his ball-handling. “Being able to break defenders down more. Being able to create plays off the bounce and not needing that screen all the time or not needing that closeout all the time.
“It just went to me looking in the mirror in the summer. I took into consideration what [executive vice president of basketball operations] Arturas [Karnisovas], what [general manager] Marc [Eversley], what Billy said in our exit meeting, and Billy’s always told me since he got here, I need to work on my ball-handling.’’