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USA Today Sports Media Group
USA Today Sports Media Group
Sport
Michael Mulford

Billy Donovan doesn’t rule out starting Patrick Williams vs. Raptors

The fate of the Chicago Bulls’ postseason hopes will be decided in Wednesday’s play-in game against the Toronto Raptors.

If Chicago wins, they’ll move on to play the loser of the matchup between the Miami Heat and Atlanta Hawks. If the Bulls lose to the Raptors, their season is over.

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One obstacle in playing the Raptors will be their size advantage, which Bulls coach Billy Donovan referenced following Friday’s win against the Dallas Mavericks.

“The biggest challenge that we’ve had against them is just their size,” Donovan said. “They play really, really big.”

Per K.C. Johnson of NBCS Chicago, Donovan spoke on the matchup with Toronto, which brought up the question whether the Bulls would consider starting Patrick Williams to give Chicago more size.

“I’m not opposed to that at all. Obviously, they’re all going to play,” Donovan said of potentially starting Williams. “I do think that they’re obviously a really big and physical team. And they’re one of the better rebounding teams in the league. But to be quite honest, I think some of our difficulties rebounding have had very little to do with size.”

Williams would add a lot more size on the glass and defensively but would take away from the starting unit with Patrick Beverley and Alex Caruso, which has played been one of the best defensive units since Beverley’s arrival.

“I think it’s been more the consistency of what you have to do, whether it be rotational boxouts or guys running to the rim. We could be bigger and still not rebound well enough. I think there are things technique-wise that we have to do to be better.”

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