2 min read • January 22, 2022
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All-star guard Zach Lavine is set to return to the No. 1 seed Bulls sometime mid-to-late week after an improvement in recovery from a left knee injury, head coach Billy Donovan said today.
Lavine has missed 3 straight games (his 4th is tonight) after awkwardly shifting his knee while gathering an offensive rebound in a blowout loss on Jan. 14, and the team has gone 1-3 including last Friday's result.
While Lavine avoided a serious injury, fellow starting guard Lonzo Ball is dealing with a more complex situation.
The 24-year-old is said to be preparing for arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a small tear of his left meniscus that will keep him out for 6-8 weeks. This will be the 2nd surgery on his left meniscus in his 5-year career.
A scope is the right course of action, our team of ProBasketballDocs say, as it actually shortens the potential timeline for Ball's recovery and contains the problem to small tear, as the injury can worsen if not addressed.
NBC Sports Chicago's K.C. Johnson reported today that Ball will undergo a week of "prehab" to ready the knee for the scope. This prep will be, at least in part, to give his bone contusion extra time to heal before surgery.
Because of his active presence on both sides of the ball, Ball's meniscus is under constant high stress.
Case in point: The first-year Bull missed over a quarter of his 2017-18 rookie season mostly because of extended problems with his knee, starting with an MCL sprain, followed by a bone bruise and eventually leading to an offseason procedure.
Soon to return is also reserve forward Derrick Jones Jr, who will be out for another 1-3 weeks with a bone bruise in his right knee, and starting forward Javonte Green, who has been out since Dec. 31 with a groin strain but is in the latter end of the 2-to-4 week timeline.
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