At the start of the season there was some skepticism about whether Lonzo Ball would be healthy enough to play – and what impact he would have – for the Bulls after having to take a break for two and a half years due to knee problems. Ball only appeared in eight of 25 games, but his several-week absence was the result of a new wrist injury rather than his surgically repaired knee, which the Bulls guard says has held up well so far, as Joe Cowley of The Chicago Sun-Times explains. Relay.

“To be honest, I’m doing a lot better than I thought I would, certainly in the beginning.” Ball said, referring to both his knee and his defense. “There are still a few mishaps, sometimes it’s definitely about the ball. But for the most part I feel comfortable out there. I feel like I haven’t really missed a beat, so I’m just trying to give good minutes when I’m out there.”

As Cowley writes, the positive impact Ball has had on Chicago’s lineup was evident even in his limited playing time. The club has a net rating of +6.5 in their 134 minutes of play; The team’s net rating is just -5.4 in the 1,066 minutes he hasn’t played. This is by far the greatest disparity on and off the field among Bulls players who have played at least 100 minutes.

According to the head coach Billy DonovanBall’s minutes limit was recently increased to 20 minutes per game (Twitter link via Julia Poe of The Chicago Tribune). As long as he stays healthy, that limit should continue to rise.

Here’s more from the Eastern Conference:

• The ankle injury Evan Mobley According to Cleveland.com’s Chris Fedor (subscription required), who suffered Sunday’s loss to the Heat, this is not considered major Cavaliers The big man told reporters after the game he was “good.” The Cavs only play one game next week, giving Mobley some time to recover, which is good news since it was clear in the second half on Sunday how much they need him on defense. “He is one of the five best defensive players in the league” Head coach Kenny Atkinson said. “You lose a guy like that and we had to play with him a little bit Dean (Wade) at the five. He was fine, but they just brought him to us. We had some jumps because of our talent. But not good enough.”
• Sunday’s game was another good game for them heatis the current starting lineup of Jimmy Butler, Bam Adebayo, Tyler Herro, Duncan RobinsonAnd Haywood Highsmith. As Barry Jackson of the Miami Herald notes, he replaces Robinson and Highsmith Terry Rozier And Nikola Jovic has made a huge difference for the team – the new-look starting five has a net rating of +20.8 in 118 minutes combined, while the old group was -20.8 in 91 minutes. “We have a lot of firepower” Herro said of the current starting lineup. “Duncan brings a different element to the lineup. He’s able to create so many different advantages, which opened up the court for me, Bam and Jimmy. With Haywood there on defense, you don’t have to put me or Duncan on one of the best players. It makes sense.”
• It was an eventful week for heat Two-way rookie Keshad Johnsonwho made his NBA debut last Monday and was named G League Player of the Week last Tuesday, writes Anthony Chiang of the Miami Herald. While Johnson only made two brief appearances for Miami at the NBA level, the team says it is thrilled with the way the forward impacted the Sioux Falls Skyforce’s win Erik Spoelstra. “He’s done some dynamic things as far as his scoring goes, he’s gotten to the rim, his three-point range has improved.” the Heat coach said. “Defensively, he played a lot of dynamic small-ball fives. He was able to switch and guard different types of guys. All of that was good for his development.”