Butler closer to return
Jimmy Butler had an MRI exam Saturday to check the progress on his injured left knee. Coach Fred Hoiberg said the pictures told a positive story.
"It looked good. The swelling is significantly down, now it's just a matter of Jimmy getting back out there, getting his timing back, getting his conditioning," Hoiberg said before Saturday's game. "He still hasn't exploded off of one leg. He's done some two-foot jumping, he's done some lateral sides. Now it's about getting him back out there in scrimmage type situations and getting him ready to play."
Butler has missed nine games since suffering a left knee strain at Denver on Feb. 5. Hoiberg made it sound as if Butler could be back in maybe a week or so, but there is no firm timetable.
"I think we'll get more of an idea after he tests it, once he gets out there on the floor and he does some two-on-two, three-on-three, work him up to some five-on-five," Hoiberg said. "But right now, I guess it's a little too early to tell. Once he starts the scrimmage stuff, we'll have a better idea."
Rose moving better:
Even though Derrick Rose missed his third straight game with right hamstring tendinitis, coach Fred Hoiberg mentioned positive signs during his nightly injury update.
"I actually worked Derrick out (Saturday) morning and he looks better," Hoiberg said. "He looks a lot better than he has the last couple of days. But he's still having trouble exploding off that leg.
"He wasn't moving around great. Better than the last couple of days, but he's still got a pretty good limp. We really wanted to push him and test it. So we did some full-court conditioning, a lot of shooting drills. He got through a lot of it, but he got pretty sore at the end and still wasn't able to explode off that leg. So just not quite ready yet."
The Bulls will get a couple days off before traveling to Miami and Orlando on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Bulls try to play it smart:
Jimmy Butler is used to playing extensive minutes. Before Saturday's game, coach Fred Hoiberg talked about the challenge of making sure Butler doesn't come back too soon from his knee injury.
"He's champing at the bit to get back out there. He's excited to get back on the floor," Hoiberg said. "I think today was a positive step after the results of the test. Now it's just a matter of getting him right and making sure mentally he's ready to get back out there and compete, where he's not out there thinking and worried about the leg, just out there playing and reacting."
Hoiberg tried to explain what doctors tried to find out from this latest Butler MRI.
"I think the big thing was making sure the swelling was down, just looking at the overall structure of the knee," he said. "Everything looks better. I think it was consistent with what they were looking for, what they wanted to see. Now it's just a matter of getting him out there and getting his timing back."