Bulls center Nikola Vucevic enters league health and safety protocols, will miss time

Bulls All-Star center Nikola Vucevic tested positive for the coronavirus and will miss several games after entering the league’s health and safety protocols, the team confirmed after K.C. Johnson of NBC Sports Chicago had the report.

The All-Star center will miss multiple games and be sidelined for at least 10 days or until he returns two negative PCR tests in a 24-hour period, sources said, because he tested positive for COVID-19.

Vucevic did not travel with the team, which begins a five-game road trip through the West on Friday in Golden State.

This is a breakthrough case as the Bulls team is fully vaccinated. It’s impossible to know for sure where Vucevic contacted and caught the virus, but he did guard the 76ers Joe Embiid in two recent games, and Embiid is now in the league’s health and safety protocols as well.

Vucevic is on the long list of NBA scorers off to slower than expected starts this season, scoring 13.6 points a game (down from 16.8 last season) on 39.5% shooting overall so far and 29.6% from 3, although he did break out with an 8-for-14 shooting night against Dallas Wednesday.