Chicago Bulls forward Otto Porter Jr. missed Wednesday’s game against the New York Knicks with a lower back issue that has been lingering for weeks.
Porter initially injured his back in the first quarter of a game against the Los Angeles Lakers at Staples Center last month. He has since missed four of the past 10 games although two were the second half of back-to-backs.
“It’s been something that’s been bothering and nagging with him,” coach Billy Donovan said. “He felt better going into the last game against New York and toward the second half just wasn’t feeling great. We’re going to try to just help him get corrected and feeling better.
“Obviously, I think he wants to play, but he knows he can’t play to the level he knows he needs to. Right now, we’re going to rest him and let him get some rehab, some treatment and then we’ll see what happens going into Orlando.”
Porter’s production has been up and down in the six games he has played since aggravating the injury as he’s averaging just 9.7 points in 22.7 minutes. Expected to provide scoring off the bench, his 36.4% 3-point shooting percentage during that span is down from his season average.
Donovan has attempted to carefully manage Porter’s playing time all season, hoping to guide him through the year healthy and productive. The training staff devised a plan to manage Porter’s minutes, but he has not been able to shake the injury bug.
Porter has been able to run and continue shooting, but playing an extended amount of minutes would have Donovan concerned. The Bulls coach was not sure whether Porter will be ready to play in Orlando this weekend, but the team plans to have a conversation with Porter and the medical staff.
“I do agree 100 percent he needs some time to get himself right physically; I don’t think there’s any question about that,” Donovan said. “But he’s also got to be part of that discussion in terms of actually when he feels he’s right. … If it takes through Orlando, we’ll do that. We’re not trying to rush him back.”
Embracing a scheduling quirk
One quirk of the 2020-21 NBA schedule is more frequent, two-game “baseball style” series against the same team, which is intended to reduce travel as the league attempts to put on the season during a pandemic.
The Bulls are being introduced to that wrinkle this week, hosting the New York Knicks Wednesday after beating them Monday at the United Center. They will do so again this weekend, when the Bulls face the Orlando Magic on back-to-back nights at the Amway Center in Orlando.
“We haven’t had too many of those, but I like it,” forward Lauri Markkanen said. “I actually like playing them just to see what they did in the first game and how they’re going to adjust. I’m sure they’re going to do things differently, as we are doing.”
Before this week, the Bulls had faced the same team in back-to-back games only once, beating the Washington Wizards on Dec. 29 and 31.
Playing the same team in consecutive games is not normal for the NBA schedule, but it does give teams a chance to make adjustments in a short period of time. It’s the kind of test usually reserved for the postseason, Donovan pointed out.
“It’s unique. It almost gives me a little bit of an impression of kind of like the playoffs,” Donovan said, “which is maybe not a bad thing for our team, since they hadn’t really experienced some of that.
“We’ve got a young group that — we’re gonna see the same team again, and here are some things we’ve got to clean up, here are some things we need to be better at, here are some adjustments maybe we can expect from them. It’s hard to beat a team twice in a row. I mean it’s really really hard to do. And how can we come back in kind of this situation and respond and play because it’s fresh on both teams’ minds.”