There’s a certain amount of comfort in Billy Donovan’s system that is starting to click with Wendell Carter Jr.
That’s why the Bulls big man was able to put up 10 first-quarter points against MVP-candidate Joel Embiid on Friday, and do so with ease.
“I just feel like it’s about being aggressive and being confident in yourself,’’ Carter said. “I feel like each and every game I gain a little bit more confidence. It’s something I have to continue to do, continue to get better at. I know that I am a better player and my teammates believe in me. It’s just about self-confidence. I am slowing developing that and it’s getting better and better each game.’’
That’s a good attitude for Carter to take, because as Donovan explained on Saturday, it doesn’t sound like help is coming from the training room to the Bulls frontcourt anytime soon.
Lauri Markkanen, who has been the primary backup center to Carter on many nights, as well as the starting four for the Bulls, is still unable to get on the court and participate in basketball activity with the team because of that sprained right shoulder.
“Still dealing with soreness there,’’ Donovan said of Markkanen. “I think I mentioned the other day, the mornings are always a little bit more difficult from sleeping to getting up. But no real new updates from what was put out previously. He is progressing, he is feeling better. He can do conditioning, because obviously it’s his shoulder. He can do running, and he’s fine with that. Still, nothing on the court with us as a team, not that we’ve had a lot of practice time, but the time table has not changed.’’
The good news is there have been no setbacks with the shoulder, meaning by mid-March the 7-footer should be up and running. The bad news is the Bulls have to continue playing short-handed, while riding up the minutes of veteran Thad Young.
As far as the other important frontcourt injury, the status of Otto Porter Jr. (back) remained basically unchanged, but also concerning for the coach.
“He’s done nothing in practice, but he has gotten shots up, and he has been doing more physically,’’ Donovan said of Porter. “Still do not know a timetable of when he’ll actually be back. I think the biggest part is just to try to get him where he’s feeling right and feeling good that he can go out there. The hard part to be quite honest with you right now with him is every day that goes by is a day where he loses more conditioning.
“My concern is gonna be once he starts feeling better to get back out there playing and doing those things, how much time will it take him to get back, his conditioning and his timing and all those kind of things?’’
Fight club
Zach LaVine would definitely like to see more Ws in the win column so far this season, but the guard did admit that a big difference from last season to this season is large deficits no longer intimidate this group.
“When teams play us, they know we’re going to fight, we’re gone claw back,’’ LaVine said. “Even if we have a bad quarter or bad possession, I think we can turn it around pretty quickly.
“It’s something that I think that we’ve worked on throughout this year, and now helped with Billy here changing our mindset to it’s not over ‘til it’s over.’’
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Bulls big man Wendell Carter Jr. shouldn’t expect help anytime soon - Chicago Sun-Times
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