SAN ANTONIO — The situation likely won’t reach the level of drama that surrounded Derrick Rose knee injury a decade ago, but Zach LaVine own knee saga is starting to feel a bit similar.
LaVine was listed as questionable leading up to the Bulls’ game Friday against the Spurs, but coach Billy Donovan said in his pregame news conference that LaVine would miss the game. LaVine will look to play against the 76ers on Saturday at the United Center.
It was the third game LaVine missed already this season while the Bulls look to manage his surgically repaired left knee, and this likely will be the norm for the time being when it comes to back-to-backs.
Donovan said, however, that the Bulls’ medical team seems to have a better grasp of the situation and how they want to handle it. That wasn’t necessarily the case last week, when LaVine missed the Bulls’ first two games before making his season debut last Saturday against the Cavaliers.
‘‘I think there’s going to be a combination of the scheduling where [LaVine] may be able to get more rest on the front end or back end, what he’s come out of load-wise leading up to that point,’’ Donovan said. ‘‘I think there will be a lot of things that will go into it.
‘‘Like I mentioned when the season started and he missed those [first] two games . . . the medical guys had to get a grasp of how he was doing. But we just want to make sure that we’re managing him well and not putting him in situations that are preventing him from being on the floor when he can be.’’
This weekend was the second of four back-to-backs the Bulls will play in the first three weeks of the season. The next comes Tuesday at the Nets and Wednesday against the Hornets. The Bulls also have home-and-home games against the Raptors on Nov. 6 and 7 before the schedule lightens up.
If the Bulls keep the same schedule for LaVine, he likely will continue sitting out the first games of those back-to-backs.
The unknown is how long the Bulls will manage LaVine this way. LaVine couldn’t answer that question when he was asked about it last week, and Donovan reiterated what LaVine said.
The good news is that LaVine got in a light workout Thursday and made the trip to San Antonio to be around his teammates.
Alex Caruso started in LaVine’s place.
Warming up?
It has been baby steps, for sure, but forward Patrick Williams has shown a bit more life offensively in the Bulls’ last couple of games. He also has done it his way, which means he isn’t pressing the issue.
One thing Williams, the Bulls’ first-round pick in 2020, won’t do is shoot for the sake of shooting, even if teammates are telling him to do so.
‘‘They know I won’t,’’ Williams said. ‘‘Once I start to see, ‘OK, these are the spots I need to be aggressive,’ then I think it will be OK. Because then the coaching staff knows and now the players know, ‘Hey, in these moments, Pat will be aggressive. Let’s use his skill set to help us.’
‘‘But as long as we keep winning, that’s what matters first and foremost.’’
