Presented by Nationwide Insurance Agent Jeff Vukovich
The Chicago Bulls have endured their share of the injury bug this season but avoided a significant addition when imaging revealed that Coby White has a mild right hip injury.
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That's according to coach Billy Donovan, who spoke before White missed his first game of the season Thursday night against the Los Angeles Clippers.
"It's probably going to be when he can start to feel comfortable to get back to playing," Donovan said. "All the imaging came back relatively clean. He is dealing with discomfort and soreness there. So it's just a matter of how quickly and soon he can get over that."
White suffered the injury in the final 10 seconds of regulation in the Bulls' overtime victory over the Indiana Pacers on Wednesday. Pascal Siakam emphatically blocked White's fast-break layup and then landed on White, who writhed on the floor for several seconds before limping straight to the locker room.
Nevertheless, by postgame, White was in good spirits in the locker room. He laughed and joked as he interacted with teammates and moved without incident.
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"Initially, I thought it was his knee that I first saw him grab. And then after he got up and left, I talked to the trainer and he said it was his hip," Donovan said. "He was in some pretty significant pain right when it occurred and then he was in pain afterward. When you see a guy go down with that kind of force on top of him, you worry about this thing could be a lot worse. In some ways, we escaped a bullet there so to speak that it wasn't something more significant or severe."
White leads the NBA in total minutes played at 2,424. In second is DeMar DeRozan, who has consistently praised White's work ethic and offseason training regimen in advance of this breakout season.
"I think for Coby it's been really an eye-opening experience in a lot of ways," Donovan said. "He has an incredible threshold to fight through things. Whether it's physical or mental things, he has a lot of reslience.
"But coming into the season, with what his role was the previous year, I don't know if he would've anticipated the number of minutes that he has gotten this year. I do think with what he has gone through this year, it will probably open up his mind to even train maybe differently this summer. That's part of his evolution as a player."