Alex Caruso expects to play against Miami ‘until my body tells me I can’t’ originally appeared on NBC Sports Chicago
CHICAGO — Alex Caruso tangled with Andre Drummond in the second quarter of Wednesday’s play-in game against the Hawks, forcing him to leave the game with an ankle injury — the same ankle that bothered him near the end of the regular season.
“(Drummond) caught me with my right foot giving out (and) my left trying to catch me,” Caruso said after the game. “I just sprained my ankle a little bit, the same one that I was dealing with the last couple weeks of the season that we were dealing with and figuring out.”
Caruso left the game and went to the locker room, where the training staff taped his ankle. He also took Tylenol to ease the pain. In a do-or-die game for the Bulls, Caruso wanted to be on the floor.
He eventually returned and tried to make a second attempt, but it didn’t work. He didn’t move well on the floor. Billy Donovan pulled Caruso and he didn’t play the rest of the game.
“He told me, ‘Listen, I’m going to try to get out here, but I’ll let you know,’” Billy Donovan said after the game. “I thought he stumbled a little bit. And then I caught him before the third (quarter) started and he said, ‘Let me try again.’ I just didn’t like the way he was moving. I dropped him off, he didn’t ask to come out.”
Fortunately, Coby White’s 42-point explosion — along with the 65 combined points of DeMar DeRozan, Nikola Vucevic and Ayo Dosunmu — catapulted the Bulls to a victory over the Hawks, advancing them in the play-in tournament.
Caruso’s defense was highly appreciated early on, as he helped the Bulls force Trae Young into five turnovers in the first frame. His defense and three-point shooting also helped the Hawks overcome an 18-point deficit in the first quarter.
But the Bulls have their eyes fixed on their next play-in game against the Heat on Friday, in which Caruso expects to play. He portrayed exactly the mentality Bulls fans would expect from the hard-nosed, resilient Caruso they’ve seen play. injury all season.
“I expect to play until I can’t anymore,” Caruso said. “We’ll see in the next few days how it goes. My mentality is to play until my body tells me I can’t.”
His plan leading up to that game is rest, treatment, compression and limiting swelling; However, Caruso said he doesn’t normally swell. The Bulls are already behind Zach LaVine and Patrick Williams this season. Dosunmu and Drummond both also entered Wednesday’s game questionable.
The Bulls can’t afford any more injuries. But they’re not the only ones in that boat. The Heat saw Jimmy Butler suffer what could be a significant MCL injury during their play-in game against the 76ers, according to multiple reports. He was seen taking extreme caution as he left the arena on Wednesday.
Should Butler be sidelined in Friday’s game, it would be a significant loss for the Heat. But, as Caruso said, “They still have plenty of talented guys, capable guys that can play.”
The Bulls hope to use their experience from playing the Heat this season and from last year’s play-in game to earn a spot as a No. 8 seed in the Eastern Conference playoffs — an achievement which they have not achieved since 2021. -22 season.
“Hopefully we can take a little bit of that experience and get things done,” Caruso said. “We’ve played close games with them almost every year I’ve been here with them. We know what to expect.”
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