In Friday night's loss to the Brooklyn Nets, Kris Dunn suffered an apparent right knee injury after Thad Young collided with his leg 13 seconds into the game. Dunn eventually limped off the floor with some assistance, and was jetted back to Chicago over the weekend for a preliminary evaluation.
Ahead of the team's Super Bowl Sunday showdown with the red-hot Raptors, the Bulls disclosed that said preliminary evaluation revealed an MCL sprain in Dunn's right knee. There is no timetable on Dunn's return at present, but according to Jim Boylen, Chandler Hutchison will start in his place for the time being.
"We'll continue to develop our wing defenders, guys need to step up into that role," Boylen said of how the team will go about life without Dunn. "To say we're going to replace what [Dunn] does, I think it'd be a foolish statement, but we're gonna have to figure it out.
"I talked to [Dunn] last night. He was great, he was upbeat, he's a positive, tough kid. So, he'll battle through."
In other news, Daniel Gafford is back! Gafford suffered a gruesome right thumb dislocation against the Wizards on Jan. 15, but is slated to return against Toronto. It doesn't sound like he'll jump back into the starting lineup just yet (Gafford had started four games in place of Wendell Carter Jr. before going down), but his return is encouraging for the team, nonetheless.
"Gaff will be active and he will get some run," Boylen said. "Probably keep with the short bursts. His conditioning still isn't where we need it to be, obviously, for a lot of reasons. He's excited to play, he'll be ready to play."
On Sunday, the Bulls look to snap an 11-game losing streak against the Raptors, which dates back to February 2017. Catch the game on NBC Sports Chicago at 2 p.m. CT.
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