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The Chicago Bulls' current injury woes have deepened.
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Already without Zach LaVine and Torrey Craig, fourth-year forward Patrick Williams now will be sidelined for at least two weeks after receiving a diagnosis of acute bone edema in his left foot. Essentially, that means there's fluid in his bone marrow.
Whatever the case, Williams, who missed Sunday night's victory in Portland with the same issue and underwent further testing in Chicago, will miss at least the next eight games leading up to the All-Star break before being re-evaluated. The best case scenario for Williams, whom the team said will be placed on active rest, would be to return following the All-Star break for a Feb. 22 game against the Boston Celtics.
"That's the hope," Donovan said. "There is another week after the break. I'm sure there will be a lot of treatment. But there's no timetable. And there will have to be a ramp-up period to see how he responds after he gets time off."
"He's got some swelling in his foot," Donovan said. "We're going to wait a few weeks to see how well they can get it calmed down. He had been nursing that for several games and it became too uncomfortable to play."
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Williams wore a walking boot on Sunday.
"It was just gradual. It’s been awhile," Williams said that night. "I’ve been trying to do maintenance on it, do pregame work on it, postgame work on it. That Laker game kind of hit the peak for me.
"You always want to take caution. It’s one of those situations where the benefit of it, whether I needed it or not, kind of outweighed the look of it. Naturally, I’d consider, ‘Hell no.’ I know what it looks like to wear a boot. You never want to just have to wear one of those. But they spoke to me about the benefit of wearing it and kind of de-loading it for a couple days."
With Williams' absence piling on top of Craig, look for Ayo Dosunmu to continue starting in a smaller lineup unless coach Billy Donovan opts for rookie Julian Phillips. Either way, the second-round pick will be in the rotation and played well in Portland.
“I just tried to play as hard as I can and help the team as much as I could,” Phillips said.
Donovan also could start utilizing the double big-man lineup of Nikola Vucevic and Andre Drummond more. And he did offer an encouraging update on Craig, who won't play in the second of the Bulls' back-to-back set of games on Wednesday in Charlotte but is "moving closer and closer to playing."
Craig has been sidelined since Dec. 16 with a right plantar fascia injury.