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Chicago Bulls’ Derrick Jones Jr. exits with knee injury against Brooklyn Nets

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11:16 PM ET

  • Jamal CollierESPN

CHICAGO — Bulls forward Derrick Jones Jr. had to be helped to the locker room during Wednesday’s game against the Brooklyn Nets after landing awkwardly on his right leg 36 seconds into the game.

The Bulls announced Jones would not return for the remainder of the game due to a right knee injury.

Jones had been in Chicago’s starting lineup the past six games while filling in for Javonte Green, who has been sidelined with a strained groin. Jones is averaging 6.5 points and 3.5 rebounds while shooting 58% in his first season with Chicago.

The Bulls are also missing guard Alex Caruso, who was still in the league’s health and safety protocols before Wednesday’s game. Coach Billy Donovan also did not expect him to play in Friday’s game against the Golden State Warriors.

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Chicago Bulls players have cleared NBA’s COVID protocols and are eligible to play

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CHICAGO — All Bulls players have cleared health and safety protocols and will be available to play in the team’s next game against the Indiana Pacers, coach Billy Donovan said Thursday.

The Bulls had as many as 10 players in the league’s protocols at the start of last week, which led to the NBA’s first two postponed games of the season. Chicago had a third game postponed Wednesday night against the Toronto Raptors because Toronto did have enough available players, which gave the Bulls an opportunity to get whole after their roster was depleted by COVID-19.

“Hopefully we have herd immunity coming back and we won’t have any more guys go down in the later months,” Bulls guard Zach LaVine said after practice Thursday. “I’m just thankful everybody is OK and everybody’s families are OK. Now we can get things rolling again as a full group.”

LaVine rejoined the team for practice Thursday after completing his mandatory 10-day quarantine. He remained asymptomatic during his stint in the league’s protocol, but checked into a hotel room to isolate from his wife for a week full of video games and Netflix.

LaVine, who also missed 11 games last season in the league’s health and safety protocol, said he was able to maintain a workout routine this time and gained six pounds during quarantine. He returned to the court for individual work earlier this week.

“It’s frustrating, but it’s the world we’re living in now,” LaVine said. “A lot of guys and teams are dealing with it. I’m just thankful I only missed two games.”

Devon Dotson, who entered health and safety protocols on Tuesday, had two negative PCR tests in 24 hours and practiced with the team Thursday.

Ayo Dosunmu, Troy Brown Jr., Matt Thomas and Alize Johnson also were cleared to play.

The only players not available for Chicago’s next game are Alex Caruso, who the team plans to reevaluate in 7-10 days after spraining his left foot during Monday’s game, and Derrick Jones Jr., who injured his left hamstring during Sunday’s game.

The Bulls signed two players — Ersan Ilyasova and Mac McClung — to a 10-day contract via hardship exception before Wednesday’s game got postponed. Once players who exit the league’s health and safety protocols are cleared medically to play, the hardship exception is terminated for that replacement player, according to ESPN’s Bobby Marks. The player will still receive the full 10-day salary.

“We’re starting to get a little bit more whole,” Donovan said. “We went from trying to add players to our team to looking at what our roster is going to look like going forward. … You’re thinking you don’t have enough roster spots and 24 hours later, you have maybe too many roster spots. We’ll have to figure all that out.”

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Ayo Dosunmu, Stanley Johnson latest Chicago Bulls players sidelined amid team’s COVID-19 outbreak

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Two more Bulls players — Ayo Dosunmu and Stanley Johnson — landed in the NBA’s health and safety protocols Saturday, bringing Chicago’s total to seven players sidelined amid a teamwide COVID-19 outbreak.

Johnson just signed a 10-day contract with the Bulls on Thursday after the team was granted a hardship exception to add another roster spot with so many players out. However, he and Dosunmu, who started the past two games, were out for Saturday’s game against the Miami Heat.

“We need a hardship for a hardship right now,” Bulls coach Billy Donovan said prior to the game.

The two players join DeMar DeRozan, Coby White, Javonte Green, Matt Thomas and Derrick Jones Jr. in the league’s protocols.

Since the start of the outbreak, the Bulls have begun testing players and coaches multiple times per day to try to monitor the spread of the virus. Chicago’s G-League affiliate, the Windy City Bulls, postponed their games on Saturday and Sunday because they won’t have eight players available due to positive tests within the team.

Jones entered the protocol on Friday while he was with the Bulls in Miami, but Donovan confirmed Saturday that Jones had returned to Chicago to begin his isolation period. After landing in health and safety protocols, players must remain in isolation for at least 10 days or until they return two negative PCR tests in a 24-hour period.

“Maybe some of it’s because of the vaccination, we’ve got a lot of guys sitting at home with no symptoms right now,” Donovan said. “That’s obviously a good thing, too, because I think when guys have gone through a real difficulty of getting really, really sick, it’s really made it a lot harder for them coming back.

“We do have some guys that have felt under the weather, we have guys that have very, very mild symptoms, and some guys that just don’t have any.”

The Bulls have not been the only team trying to manage outbreaks. The Charlotte Hornets, who played the Bulls at the United Center about two weeks ago, have five players in the health and safety protocols.

Others who recently landed in the league’s COVID protocols include Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant, Washington Wizards forward Kyle Kuzma, Indiana Pacers coach Rick Carlisle and Toronto Raptors executive Masai Ujiri.

As the NBA navigates another season amid the pandemic, one major difference from last year is that, so far, the league has not needed to postpone any games.

The Bulls still had 11 players available Saturday night in Miami, including two two-way players, another in Alfonzo McKinnie, who signed a 10-day contract Friday, and guard Alex Caruso, who was available after missing the past two games with a hamstring injury.

That gave them well above the eight-player minimum the NBA used as a threshold to postpone games last season.

“I would totally understand if somebody on our team’s like, ‘Listen, I don’t feel comfortable with this. We’re together, we’re practicing and I don’t feel comfortable playing,'” Donovan said. “We haven’t had any of that, but certainly COVID has impacted people in a lot of different ways, and I think people have, at least inside of our team, have had loved ones that have really suffered from it.

“It is a scary time. Our guys have really done a good job of just trying to put their best foot forward to try to really stay locked in on, ‘This is what I have to do,’ or, ‘This is what I can control,’ and try to move forward with it.”

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What? DeMar DeRozan Just Passed Michael Jordan On This List In The Knicks-Bulls Game

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DeMar DeRozan and the Chicago Bulls beat the New York Knicks 109-103 in Illinois on Sunday night, and DeRozan just broke a franchise record. 

He is now the player who has scored the most points in his first 16 games with the Bulls in the team’s history. 

His 425 points passed Michael Jordan who had 424 points in his first 16 games with the team as a rookie during the 1984-85 season. 

DeRozan finished the game with 31 points. 

The former USC star began his career with the Toronto Raptors and had spent the last several seasons in San Antonio on the Spurs before signing with the Bulls this past offseason. 

So far, the team looks fantastic with him as one of their top scorers.      

The four-time All-Star has been fitting in seamlessly with Zach LaVine, Lonzo Ball and the rest of the team. 

The Bulls are now the first seed in the Eastern Conference with a 12-5 record in their first 17 games. 

  • KUZMA AND THE WIZARDS ARE ROLLING: The Washington Wizards traded Russell Westbrook before the start of the season and have a new-look roster. Yet, they look fantastic to start the season, and after they got their tenth win on Monday night over the New Orleans Pelicans, Kyle Kuzma sent out a tweet. CLICK HERE.
  • STEPH AND THE WARRIORS ARE ON FIRE: The Golden State Warriors have not made the playoffs in two seasons, but that appears likely to change this season. They are on fire to start the season led by superstar guard Steph Curry and have the best record in the entire NBA. . CLICK HERE. 

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DeMar DeRozan, carrying ‘so many chips’ on shoulder, scores season-high 38 vs. Lakers as hot start with Bulls continues

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LOS ANGELES — Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan scored a season-high 38 points on Monday night to help lift Chicago to a 121-103 victory against the Los Angeles Lakers, the fifth time in the past nine games he has notched at least 30 points.

Even though DeRozan reached his season high early in the fourth quarter and had a chance for his first 40-point game since 2018, with some urging to go for it from teammate Zach LaVine, he was content with his final line as the Bulls secured a commanding win.

“[LaVine] was trying to force me to get 40 tonight. I told him I was tired,” DeRozan, who also had six assists, said with a laugh.

DeRozan is off to a fantastic start in his first season with the Bulls, scoring 26.9 points per game (third in the NBA behind only Brooklyn’s Kevin Durant and Golden State’s Stephen Curry) while shooting 51% from the field and adding five rebounds and four assists.

DeRozan cited people calling him “washed” in recent years and questioning his fit with the Bulls as motivation for his renaissance this season.

“I can go down the list of just being counted out, being looked over,” DeRozan said. “So many chips that’s on my shoulder that I carry. And just wanting to be a winner and wanting to enjoy this ride. We can’t play this game forever, so I want to get as much as I can out of it.”

Even in his 13th season in the NBA, at 32 years old, DeRozan is proving that he still has plenty left to contribute to a winning team.

“I never looked at age as being an issue,” he said. “I never looked at it. People put the age limit on everything, and I never did. The way I worked, the way I take care of my body, the way I prepare, I knew what I was capable of doing. I just took different roads the last couple years of playing basketball, trying to do the right thing, figuring it out.

“This time, just knowing my ability was always there, I never lost confidence. I never thought I couldn’t be who I was before. Chicago allowed me to completely be myself.”

The win marks the first Bulls victory against the Lakers since 2016, and Chicago completed a sweep of the Clippers and Lakers on a back-to-back at Staples Center to improve its record to 10-4.

DeRozan helped lead the charge by scoring at least 35 points on back-to-back nights, but he got plenty of help. Lonzo Ball knocked down seven 3-pointers and finished with 27 points, while LaVine added 26 points. Those three players combined to score or assist on 110 points on Monday night.

“I think we are one of the top teams in the NBA,” Ball said. “Obviously, we still have a long way to go, a lot to improve on. But we’re moving in the right direction.”

DeRozan has been off to one of the most efficient starts of his career while showing what a scoring threat he can still be in the half-court offense, where all but four of his points came on Monday night. He scored on five different Lakers, according to ESPN Stats & Information research, punishing Carmelo Anthony for 12 points on 4-of-6 shooting when they matched up.

And if the Lakers left DeRozan open, it usually resulted in points. Eight of his made field goals were uncontested, including both 3s he knocked down.

“I think a lot of people counted him out saying he’s on the back end of his career, but this is probably one of his best years that he’s had in the NBA,” Ball said. “I’ve always known what type of player he was. I don’t know how he got kind of lost in the shuffle in San Antonio, but he’s one of the best players in this game and I think he’s going out there and proving it every night.”

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DeMar DeRozan leads Chicago Bulls over Clippers in first game home in Los Angeles without late father on hand

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LOS ANGELES — Every time Chicago Bulls forward DeMar DeRozan has come to play in Los Angeles during his 13-year NBA career, the games have been special for him, but the Bulls’ 100-90 victory over the LA Clippers on Sunday at Staples Center carried a bit more weight.

DeRozan, who grew up in nearby Compton, revealed after the game that this was his first time playing in Los Angeles since his father, Frank, died in February after a long illness.

“Every time I came home, it was always an honor,” DeRozan said. “This is my first time coming home to play since my dad passed. And he was at every game. He didn’t miss any games. [Sunday] was one of those games that, you know, I wish he was here.”

DeRozan scored a game-high 35 points to help lead the Bulls to a bounce-back victory following a 26-point loss to the Golden State Warriors on Friday. He helped stave off a Clippers comeback in the fourth quarter, knocking down all four of his shots and finishing with nine points to help seal the victory, which snapped LA’s seven-game winning streak.

The normally nonchalant DeRozan was noticeably more animated on the floor during the final period. At one point, after spinning past Clippers guard Terance Mann and scoring over the outstretched hand of Nicolas Batum, DeRozan stopped and mean mugged to admire his work before heading to the free throw line for the and-1. After Zach LaVine hit a corner 3 through a double team with less than a minute to go in the game, DeRozan greeted LaVine with a hug.

DeRozan downplayed postgame that he was showing any extra emotion because it was his first game in L.A. since his father died, but he noted that he doesn’t take playing in games close to home for granted.

“It’s just always fun to come home and play, especially against a good team,” DeRozan said. “The Clippers are a hell of a team. We just got our butts whooped and we wanted to respond. And we did.”

LaVine added 29 points to complement DeRozan’s performance, giving the two players a combined 64 points, matching their highest combined total this season, according to ESPN Stats & Information research. It’s the third time this season they have combined to score at least 60 points in a game.

DeRozan and LaVine have formed one of the best scoring duos in the NBA in their first year together in Chicago, but it almost didn’t happen. DeRozan acknowledged Sunday night that he almost signed in Los Angeles before the Bulls swooped in and attracted him to Chicago.

“But what happens happens how it needs to happen,” he said. “I couldn’t be happier in Chicago honestly. So it works out 1000% perfect when it needs to.”

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Mavericks’ Tim Hardaway Jr. says ‘Bulls are back,’ but Alex Caruso believes improved Chicago not quite there yet

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CHICAGO — After the Chicago Bulls racked up yet another quality victory Wednesday night — the latest, a 117-107 triumph over the Dallas Mavericks at the United Center that moved them to 8-3 on the season — their opponent took note of the way this new-look team has meshed so quickly.

“All I can say is, the Bulls are back, man,” Mavericks guard Tim Hardaway Jr. said.

After beginning the season 4-0 against teams that missed the postseason a year ago, the Bulls have continued their fast start as their schedule has toughened. This week they’ve won back-to-back games against the Brooklyn Nets and Mavericks and are currently tied with the Washington Wizards for the best record in the Eastern Conference.

And although Bulls guard Alex Caruso said he thinks it’s too early to make any grand proclamations himself, he still is encouraged by the way they’re taking care of business.

“We have games here and there where we’re just kind of finding ways to win, and I think that’s the sign of a good team,” said Caruso, who won a title with the Los Angeles Lakers in 2019-20. “I think we have a lot of ways to get better. That’s probably the most encouraging thing for me.

“Eleven games into the season, I don’t think you can say anybody’s back, especially for the prestige of the Bulls. They won three championships in a row twice. Being back, that’s a big statement.”

But the Bulls, who have not made the postseason since the 2016-17 season, are routinely making big statements on the court. They put an exclamation point on this game near the end of the fourth quarter with a highlight-reel, 360-degree dunk from Zach LaVine after a crosscourt, overhead pass from Lonzo Ball on a play started after one of Caruso’s career-high-tying six steals.

“Zo’s an incredible passer, QB1 throwing that pass up to Zach,” Caruso said. “And then Zach did what he does.”

Chicago shot 50.6% from the field and 48.4% from 3, with 26 assists to just 11 turnovers.

Even though the Bulls’ leading scorer, DeMar DeRozan, struggled from the field and ended up with just 17 points, the rest of the team stepped up around him. LaVine scored 23 points. Ball had 21 and made 7 of 10 of his 3-point attempts. Their defense held Mavericks star Luka Doncic to just 6-of-18 shooting for 20 points.

The Bulls are in the middle of a grueling stretch against teams that made the postseason last year and will begin a five-game West Coast road trip on Friday against the Warriors, who are an NBA-best 10-1.

But as the Bulls keep notching quality wins, they continue to receive respect from their opponents.

“We’re moving in the right direction,” Ball said. “It’s a brand-new team. Trying to build a new culture here; 8-3 is not too bad.”

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Chicago Bulls forward Patrick Williams could miss start of season with ankle injury

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CHICAGO — Chicago Bulls forward Patrick Williams has a severe left ankle sprain that could cause him to miss the start of the season.

The news announced Friday is a blow for a team hoping to make the playoffs in the Eastern Conference after some major offseason moves.

The Bulls expect Williams to miss four to six weeks because of the injury sustained Sept. 15 during an optional individual workout. Chicago opens the season at Detroit on Oct. 20.

Williams started 71 games and averaged 9.2 points and 4.6 rebounds last year after being drafted out of Florida State with the No. 4 overall pick.

The team also said guard Coby White is expected to make a full return in November after having surgery on his left shoulder in June. He will participate in noncontact activities in training camp, which begins Tuesday. White averaged 15.1 points and 4.8 assists in his second NBA season.

The Bulls finished 11th in the Eastern Conference at 31-41 last season, two games behind Charlotte for the final tournament play-in spot and out of the postseason for the fourth straight year. They acquired four-time All-Star DeMar DeRozan and guard Lonzo Ball in separate sign-and-trade deals.

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Tom Thibodeau could be eyeing Knicks reunion with Zach LaVine

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As president/coach of Minnesota, Tom Thibodeau once dispatched Zach LaVine to Chicago in a 2017 trade for Jimmy Butler.

But the Knicks coach sounded like he wouldn’t mind reuniting with the current Bulls shooting guard, noting his improvement. There’s speculation the Bulls would put LaVine on the trading block before he becomes a 2022 free agent. That could be before March’s trade deadline, this summer or at the next trading deadline.

The Knicks need more scoring and LaVine is a sniper — one of the best dunkers in the NBA. He’s averaging 26.8 points and 5.3 assists. SNY reported over the summer LaVine would be on the Knicks’ radar.

The biggest edge the Knicks would have over many teams interested is they have $18 million in cap space to absorb a big contract without giving away much salary. He’s one of many players on the Knicks’ radar, sources contend. Bulls owner Jerry Reinsdorf could be hesitant to deal LaVine to Thibodeau considering his Bulls’ breakup was ugly.

Before Monday night’s 110-102 loss to the Bulls, in which LaVine scored 21 points on 8-of-16 shooting with five rebounsd, Thibodeau was asked about LaVine’s progression since he dealt him out of Minnesota. Ironically, Butler’s addition to Minnesota created friction with the young players and led to Thibodeau’s dismissal two years ago.

Zach Lavine
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“He’s continued to grow I think each year,’’ Thibodeau said. “I think sometimes we tend to forget the steps that players take to get to the point to where they are today. and for Zach, he started off, I think he scored around 13 or 14 points a game his first year. Then there was another four-point jump. Now he’s up to 26, 27. He’s shooting 50, 40, 90. He’s an elite shooter. He’s a great athlete. … But he’s a great guy, a hard worker. So you knew he would continue to improve. He’s playing at a very high level.’’

The Knicks also have a trove of draft picks to deal, including two first-round picks this year.

Bulls first-year coach Billy Donovan recruited Julius Randle when Donovan was at Florida. Randle chose Kentucky. Now, Randle is having a career year and shooting well from the 3-point line (37.5 percent) and may be on the verge of making his first All-Star team.

“Thibs is putting him in situations playing to Julius’ strengths,’’ Donovan said. “He’s a handful in the low post. He’s got great feet and ball-handling ability. He’s worked hard on his shooting. He’s shooting the ball much better. Earlier in his career he’s a guy you left alone and try to jam the paint. Now he’s making midrange, 3s, puts it on the floor. He’s a heckuva driver…. He continues to evolve and grow as a player.’’

Donovan coached Knicks backup center Nerlens Noel the last two seasons at OKC. Like Randle, he also recruited Noel but lost him to Kentucky. Noel, who signed a one-year, $5 million deal with the Knicks in November, missed his second straight game with knee soreness.

“I loved him,’’ Donovan said. “I recruited him coming out of high school. A lot of these NBA guys I never got. He’s a terrific teammate and love the way he plays the game with great shot-blocking ability. He sees the floor well for a big guy. He was great for us at OKC. He gave us an incredible two years there — all about the team.’’

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