CHICAGO — Derrick Jones Jr. spent the majority of his first game back on the court with the Chicago Bulls in a varying degree of pain.
When Jones fractured the pointer finger on his right hand during practice Jan. 24, the Bulls predicted his recovery would take six to eight weeks. But the shooting forward returned early Saturday night, wearing a splint for a 106-101 win over the Oklahoma City Thunder at the United Center.
The extra padding on his finger didn’t keep Jones off the court — or the rim, which he swung off acrobatically after smashing a dunk in the fourth quarter. Jones clutched his hand as he jogged back up the court, wincing as he cradled his splinted finger, but remained in the game.
“I’m not in too much pain,” Jones said. “At the time it happened, it’s a sharp pain. I’m just going to get through it. … It’s been eating me alive. I was just waiting for this pain to die down a little bit so I could get back out there. As soon as it went away a little bit, I was right back out there tonight.”
Jones wasn’t the focus for the Bulls in the win. With Zach LaVine (left knee) and Javonte Green (right foot) resting, the spotlight remained firmly focused on DeMar DeRozan and Nikola Vucevic, who combined for 69 points.
DeRozan scored 38 for his fifth straight game with at least 35 and 19th of the season with at least 30 — and Vucevic added 31 points and 15 rebounds. Coby White went 4-for-6 from 3-point range and finished with 16 points, and Ayo Dosunmu had 12 points, eight rebounds and nine assists.
But on Saturday, Jones became the first in a wave of injured Bulls expected to return in the next two months, starting an important period for the team.
For coach Billy Donovan, reintroducing players off long injury furloughs offers relief and challenge.
“The big issue is how does he feel getting back on the floor,” Donovan said. “It’s been quite some time since he’s playing the game. What’s his timing like, his rhythm like — I don’t know any of that stuff.”
Jones is one of four players — alongside Lonzo Ball (left knee), Alex Caruso (right wrist) and Patrick Williams (left wrist) in the long term — to miss a month or more at the start of 2022. As the Bulls rebuild their health, they also will need to rebuild chemistry as they reintroduce players after adjusting to their absences.
Chemistry has been an interesting formula for the Bulls. Executive vice president Artūras Karnišovas cited chemistry as a key factor in the front office’s decision to stand pat at the trade deadline Thursday, urging the team to focus on molding their roster.
Although the Bulls didn’t make any of the paradigm-shifting allocations seen throughout the rest of the Eastern Conference, LaVine said the team still feels relatively new. It has been barely five months since the team assembled for the first time for a weekslong voluntary practice period ahead of preseason.
Donovan and his players say those weeks were fundamental in helping the team get to know each other. But in the five months since, the Bulls have rarely seen a chance to play together as a complete team.
The result is a mixed bag of a team halfway toward operating at full capacity. On offense, the Bulls are clicking — top 10 in the league in shooting efficiency and scoring and 12th in assists. Defensively, it’s another story as the Bulls cough up 130-point performances to opponents while struggling to rotate off-ball.
As the All-Star break nears, the Bulls have begun to strike a yearning tone when they consider a future point in the season with all of their pieces healthy.
“It’s like a dream,” DeRozan said. “I dream about it every night. Being on a sunny, beautiful island — that’s how I picture it when we get back healthy.”
Donovan said he isn’t worried about reintegrating players who were able to spend most of their recovery around the team.
Hand and arm injuries allow players such as Jones, Caruso and Williams to remain around the team regularly since their physical therapy is less involved. Caruso is a constant even when he can’t play, tossing around a Nerf football during practices and shouting out defensive directives in his signature sweatsuits on the sidelines of road games. Williams has traveled to most road games and spends hours each week in individual film study.
Ball has yet to travel with the team — meniscus surgery recovery doesn’t pair well with long plane rides — but he returned to the sideline at practice this week to begin low-intensity mobility drills.
But even if injured players are still around their teammates, it’s a different feat to meld back into the chemistry created in their absence. The Bulls have found their winning ways through new sources: Dosunmu running the point and Vucevic using a higher volume of touches to dominate on offense.
As the Bulls begin to welcome back injured players, Donovan said growing pains are to be expected.
“There is a period of time where they have to acclimate, but you also want to put them out there to play to help them get acclimated,” Donovan said. “That sometimes can take a little bit of time. ... You’re expecting them to be where they left off, and it generally doesn’t happen.”
