Wade may be back sooner than expected; Rondo has wrist injury
Even after losing in New York on Tuesday, the Bulls still control their own destiny when it comes to making the playoffs, but they can't afford any more letdowns like they had against the Knicks.
Rajon Rondo is listed as questionable for Thursday's game in Philadelphia with a sprained right wrist. He took a hard fall in the third quarter at New York and didn't play in the fourth. X-rays taken after the game showed no fracture and he went for an MRI exam on Wednesday afternoon.
"Right now it just doesn't feel right," Rondo said at Wednesday's practice, according to espn.com. "It's an important part of my game, so I want to make sure it's right, get the results back, get treatment and go from there."
Meanwhile, Dwyane Wade participated in a full-contact scrimmage on Wednesday, and it's conceivable he could be back from a right elbow injury sooner than expected. When Wade suffered the injury on Mar. 15 against Memphis, the original diagnosis of a sprain and small fracture had him missing the rest of the regular season.
Coach Fred Hoiberg ruled out Wade playing Thursday against the 76ers, but Saturday in Brooklyn might be a possibility.
"He looked good," Hoiberg told reporters. "The big thing for him right now is getting his conditioning and wind and timing back, but it was great to see him out there and part of our scrimmage.
"I think a big thing will be how he responds tomorrow with the increased workload. We'll have another practice in New York on Friday and then see how he's doing."
Wade did not comment after Wednesday's practice, but Jimmy Butler talked about the possibility of getting Wade back sooner than expected.
"I don't want him to hurry back and reinjure it or make it worse, but I want him out there on the floor, so it's kind of a 'I want you back, but I don't want you to jeopardize anything,'" Butler said, according to espn.com.
"He makes my job a lot easier, along with everybody else's. It's just good to have him, his presence out there. That's bigger than what he does on the floor. Just having him out there with us."
The Bulls (38-40) fell back into a tie with Indiana for seventh place in the Eastern Conference. It then became a three-way tie when Miami beat Charlotte Wednesday night. The Bulls hold all tiebreakers against the Pacers and Heat, so if they win their final four games, the Bulls will finish no worse than seventh.
But they'll need to shake the habit of not bringing their best effort against poor teams. The Bulls fell behind the short-handed Knicks by 20 points in the second quarter and couldn't recover. They should already be wary of Philadelphia, since they lost to the 76ers at the United Center on Mar. 24.
The Bulls finish with Philadelphia, Brooklyn twice and Orlando. Those are the three worst teams in the East, so winning all four games seems possible, but sometimes the bad teams, with players fighting for next year's job, bring the best effort.
"The next three teams we are playing are going to play as hard as any teams in the league," Hoiberg told reporters after the loss in New York. "They are going to come in and play free, play loose and play hard with effort. We have to match that. We have to come prepared and be ready. There's a lot of disappointment there, but you have to find a way to put it behind and move on to the next one."
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Bulls game day
Bulls vs. Philadelphia 76ers at Wells Fargo Center, 6 p.m. Thursday
TV: Comcast SportsNet
Radio: WLS 890-AM
Outlook: The Bulls should be very wary of the 76ers, who rolled to a 117-107 win at the UC on Mar. 24. Philadelphia (28-50) has gone 1-5 since then and gave up 141 points in a loss to Brooklyn on Tuesday. In the last meeting, the Bulls couldn't stop Sixers rookie PF Dario Saric, who scored 32 points. Philadelphia's bench had a big night, with rookie PF Shawn Long scoring 18 points and SG Gerald Henderson adding 14. Top scorer Joel Embiid (knee) is out for the year and backup PG Sergio Rodriguez is sidelined with a hamstring injury. The win in Chicago snapped the Sixers' 12-game losing streak to the Bulls. Jimmy Butler has averaged 30 points in three games vs. Philadelphia this season.
Next: Brooklyn Nets at the Barclays Center on Saturday, 4 p.m.
- Mike McGraw