DeRozan misses 1st game of season with quad strain originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
WASHINGTON — DeMar DeRozan missed his first game of the season Wednesday night, sitting out because of the right quad strain that he suffered in Monday’s loss to the Boston Celtics.
Coach Billy Donovan said the team will be properly cautious with the injury but that it’s not considered serious.
“Anytime it’s a strain like that, he’s going to want to—and medical too—just make sure it’s not something that lingers on and he re-aggravates and sets him back even further,” Donovan said before a contest against the Washington Wizards. “He still has some discomfort there. But we don’t feel like it’s a major strain or major tear or anything like that. They’ll keep progressing him and pushing him and seeing how he responds.”
The Chicago Bulls next play Friday at home against the Oklahoma City Thunder. DeRozan didn’t participate in the team’s morning shootaround at Georgetown University but got up some shots in flip-flops and sweats afterward.
Following the loss in Boston, DeRozan said he had quietly been dealing with discomfort in the area for eight games. When he slipped—or tripped over Al Horford, depending on one’s perspective—and fell in the third quarter, he aggravated it.
DeRozan tried to play for 2 more minutes before retreating to the locker room and missing the remainder of Monday’s game. He has expressed no long-term concerns about the injury.
“To me, when the season starts, physically we go through so much stuff that you just gotta deal with it,” DeRozan said on Monday in Boston. “In my mind, knock on wood, as long as nothing is torn or broke, I try to assess myself and feel like I could play through almost anything. That’s all it is. It’s nothing too serious to be extra overly concerned about. It’s just one of those uncomfortable things that I don’t want to linger and keep worrying about.”
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