CHICAGO (AP) — The Chicago Bulls lost top scorers Coby White and Josh Giddey to injuries in Monday night's 136-101 loss to the Minnesota Timberwolves, but coach Billy Donovan said after the game he was unsure of the severity of the injuries.
White, Chicago’s leading scorer, exited with a right calf strain in the first quarter after playing 6 minutes and 35 seconds and not scoring. He was ruled out for the rest of the game at halftime and the Bulls
lost their second in a row to drop to 15-17 after a five-game winning streak.
White, who entered averaging 20.5 points, missed the first 11 games this season with similar calf injury.
“It’s always concerning for me when something rears its head again,” Donovan said. “I think we’ve tried to manage his minutes to keep them 30 and below, somewhere in that range. But I don’t know where this is going to end up or how long.”
Donovan said he didn’t see what happened.
“He just yelled to me that he needed to come out,” Donovan said. “I used the timeout and he kind of went to the locker room.”
White’s return was ruled out by medical staff at halftime.
Giddey, Chicago’s second-leading scorer, walked off the court gingerly with an apparent left hamstring injury in the first minute of the second half. He also was ruled out for the remainder of the contest after scoring 11 points.
The Bulls were already playing without center Zach Collins, who will probably miss several games with a sprained right big toe, Donovan said before Monday’s game.
The coach was as upset with his team's lack of response to the injuries as he was about the loss of the players.
Chicago tied the game at 55 early in the third quarter, but the Timberwolves dominated the rest of the way. Naz Reid led Minnesota with a season-high 33 points and Anthony Edwards scored 23. Minnesota shot 53.7% while committing only three turnovers compared to 16 for Chicago.
“We didn't really give ourselves a chance tonight,” Donovan said.
Nikola Vucevic, who led Chicago with 23 points, echoed that.
“I already told them (Bulls teammates) at the timeout that we took after Josh went out, just next man up mentality,” Vucevic said. "That's all we can do.
“You never want to see your teammates go down, especially for us, we finally got whole and finally felt like we got a good rhythm going.”
Giddey came in averaging 19.5 points, 9.2 assists and 9.1 rebounds. He ranks second in the NBA with seven triple-doubles.
The 6-foot-11 Collins sat out the first 21 games of the season with a fractured bone (scaphoid) in his left wrist, but has come on strong off the bench in 10 games since returning.
He is averaging 9.7 points and 5.6 rebounds per game and scored in double figures in six straight.
Vucevic and Collins are listed as the tallest Bulls players. They've given Chicago a double-big lineup.
“Obviously coming out of the wrist injury break, him coming back, I think he made a pretty significant impact that allowed us to play big,” Donovan said. “Just his physicality, his rebounding, some of the things he did screen-wise really helped us.”
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