(670 The Score) Bulls big man Lauri Markkanen is “highly unlikely” to return before the All-Star break as he continues to recover from and rehab his sprained right shoulder, coach Billy Donovan said Wednesday evening.
The All-Star break runs from March 5-10, and the Bulls have five games left before it, starting against the Timberwolves at the United Center on Wednesday. Markkanen has been out since suffering the injury on a collision in a game on Feb. 5. On Feb. 8, the Bulls announced he would be out two to four weeks. Chicago’s first game back from the break is against Philadelphia on March 11.
“My feeling is that it would be highly unlikely that he would play before the All-Star break,” Donovan said. “We're getting close towards the end to see where he is at. Then we've got basically another five or six days or so before we come back to start testing again and then we'd have a day of practice beforehand. He makes progress, but he has not done anything contact-wise, he's done nothing that at this point in time would show us that he's going to be back within the next week, because that's basically, we're out a week before the All-Star break. So, could it happen? Sure. Do I feel like it's likely it's going to happen? Probably not.”
Markkanen is averaging 19.1 points and 6.1 rebounds in 14 games this season.