Bulls’ Coby White set to return from injury and continue building his case for NBA’s Most Improved Player

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Chicago Bulls guard Coby White is on track to return to the lineup on Thursday against the Houston Rockets. He missed the Bulls’ past three games with a right hip sprain after a scary fall last week against the Indiana Pacers, but practiced on Wednesday. In his first public comments since Pascal Siakam landed on him in an extremely awkward fashion, he sounded relieved that this absence was not significantly longer.

“That was one of those things that you can’t control,” White told reporters, via the Chicago Tribune‘s Julia Poe. “Like, a dude landing on me. But they say I dodged a bullet, so it could have been a lot worse. They say I’m pretty flexible, so that’s what helped me in that scenario.”

White added that he was “glad it was nothing serious.”

White told reporters he had watched watched video of the incident. “To me, the replay is bad,” he said, via NBC Sports Chicago’s K.C. Johnson. “But I don’t think it’s that bad to where everybody was making it seem. It was just an awkward landing and he fell on me.” He said that he was “in pain” at the time but “didn’t feel anything pop.”

According to the NBA’s 4:30 p.m. ET injury report, White is still officially “questionable” for Thursday’s game in Houston. If he is not upgraded to “available” before tipoff, then he will presumably make his return on Saturday against the Boston Celtics.

This time last week, White had missed zero games this season and was leading the entire league in minutes played. Now he is fourth in total minutes, behind his teammate DeMar DeRozan, Sacramento Kings big man Domantas Sabonis and Brooklyn Nets wing Mikal Bridges. (Bridges’ ironman streak hit 500 games on Tuesday.)

White’s minutes total (2,425) is a reflection of how much his game — and role — have grown in Year 5. Last season, he logged a total of 1,730 minutes. While he only started two games in 2022-23, averaging a career-low 9.7 points in a career-low 23.4 minutes, his improved efficiency and maturity were encouraging. But in no way was it obvious that he was about to break out the way he had in…

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Source link : https://www.cbssports.com/nba/news/bulls-coby-white-set-to-return-from-injury-and-continue-building-his-case-for-nbas-most-improved-player/

Author : James Herbert

Publish date : 2024-03-21 21:40:19

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