The Chicago Bulls are monitoring the status of point guard Coby White ahead of their matchup against the visiting Washington Wizards on Saturday.
White missed his first game of the season in a 126-111 home loss to the Los Angeles Clippers on Thursday. The fifth-year pro suffered a mild right hip injury in Chicago’s 132-129 overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday.
The Bulls (32-35) are hoping for a quick recovery, but White is listed as doubtful to play against Washington (11-55), which has lost its last two games following two straight victories.
White is enjoying a breakout season, averaging 19.5 points and 5.2 assists while ranking second in the league in minutes played (2,425), trailing only teammate DeMar DeRozan (2,452).
“It’s probably going to be when he can start to feel comfortable to get back to playing,” Chicago coach Billy Donovan said of White. “All the imaging came back relatively clean. He is dealing with discomfort and soreness there. So it’s just a matter of how quickly and soon he can get over that.”
Chicago holds the ninth seed in the Eastern Conference with 15 games remaining. After starting the season with a 5-14 record, the Bulls are finding it hard to climb out of the bottom side of the East’s play-in bracket.
“It’s kind of the position we put ourselves in with the bad start,” Chicago center Nikola Vucevic said. “We definitely dug ourselves a hole.”
Vucevic is averaging 20.2 points and 10.8 rebounds while shooting 49.3 percent from the field over the last 12 games. The Bulls have lost three of their last four heading into the matchup against Washington, which is concluding a four-game road trip.
The Wizards trailed by as many as 24 points in a 135-119 loss to the Houston Rockets on Thursday. Jordan Poole scored 25 points off the bench to lead Washington, while Deni Avdija added 24 and Kyle Kuzma had 23.
Washington played without centers Marvin Bagley III (lower back strain) and Richaun Holmes (left big toe sprain). Holmes is questionable to face Chicago while Bagley will sit out.
With both centers out, the Wizards struggled near the basket in the loss to Houston.
“We just let guys drive to the rim. No help at the rim. We didn’t do our best tonight at (rotating),” Kuzma said. “They got in transition, they got in the paint, and we suffered for it.”
Washington signed 7-foot center Tristan Vukcevic on Thursday to help bolster the team’s frontcourt. The 21-year-old was selected by the Wizards in the second round of the 2023 draft.
Kuzma is averaging 26.1 points and 7.2 rebounds over the past 10 games for Washington, which appeared to be trending in the right direction following wins over the Charlotte Hornets and Miami Heat last week.
Wizards interim coach Brian Keefe remained positive following Thursday’s loss to Houston, which shot 58.6 percent from the field.
“I don’t think our team has taken a step back. I think we’re in a learning process and a discovery process about our team,” Keefe said. “I liked our fight tonight. We’ve shown good examples in the last five games that we can play high-level defense. Tonight, we didn’t initiate physically to stop the ball and bring over the help, something we’ll address and look at, but each game we’ve got to grow.”
–Field Level Media