Billy Donovan's honest take on Lonzo Ball's debut

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Lonzo Ball is back! It took over 1,000 days for him to recover from his knee injury, but Ball played on Wednesday night as the Chicago Bulls took on the Minnesota Timberwolves at home. The Bulls got the win, and Ball played great in his first game back.

The last time Lonzo Ball played in a game was in January of 2022. It was a long road to get here, but he is back. Bulls head coach Billy Donovan was very pleased with what he saw from his star on Wednesday night.

“I thought he looked great, you know, I really did,” Billy Donovan said after the game, according to a post from Darnell Mayberry. “I think he’s talked about trying to, you know, get back his rhythm and timing. But like I said, there’s a lot of things that he does in the game that he doesn’t really require anything, you know, with his knee or his body, he uses his brain so much. But I thought he moved really, really well. I think some of the things I talked about before the game was to see him defensively, you know, see him get into screens, play in the pick and roll. And I think he did a great job on all those things.”

Lonzo Ball was on a minute restriction on Wednesday as he wasn’t going to play more than 16 minutes. The Bulls got him in for 15, and he went 4-6 from the floor for 10 points, and he was 2-4 from deep. Ball looked good.

“I think we got right around the amount of minutes we wanted to play him, you know, we’ll see how he responds tomorrow from it,” Donovan continued. “But for me personally it was great just to see him be able to get back out there on the floor and then obviously play as well as he did too.”

If you’re a Bulls fans, seeing Ball find success on the basketball court on Wednesday was a beautiful sight. Ball has been waiting a long time to return to game action, and he did not disappoint.

Hopefully Ball continues to progress well and that minute restriction can go away. Right now, the Bulls are being very careful with him, and that’s the smart thing to do.

The Bulls got the win against the Timberwolves as the final score was 125-123. Chicago has one more preseason game against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Friday, and then regular season action starts on the 23rd as the Bulls will hit the road to take on the New Orleans Pelicans.

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