Bulls' Dwyane Wade (rest) to sit out first game of season

ByNick Friedell ESPN logo

Tuesday, November 22, 2016

LOS ANGELES -- The Chicago Bulls will sit Dwyane Wade for Sunday night's game against the Los Angeles Lakers to give him some rest, marking the first game the All-Star guard has missed this season.

Wade played a season-high 36 minutes in Saturday's 102-95 loss to the LA Clippers.

"He actually felt OK [after the game]," Bulls head coach Fred Hoiberg said before Sunday's game. "We had a conversation -- I thought the smart thing to do would be to sit him out tonight and get him ready for the rest of the road trip."

Wade has repeatedly praised the communication he's had with Hoiberg regarding his minutes early in the season. The 14-year veteran is a combined 6-for-26 from the field on the second night of the two back-to-backs he already has played this season.

"It's really started since the beginning of training camp," Hoiberg said. "With practices, with two-a-days, seeing how his body feels after a practice and make the determination if he's going to sit out or if he's going to go through part of practice, do the non-contact portion. We feel like we had a pretty good plan in place, our communication was very good, and we sat him when he needed to. But at the same time he felt like he had to push through some limits to get himself into the type of shape that he needed to be in for a full season ... I think he had his season high in minutes last night. And the smart thing to do was to sit him out in tonight's game."

Nikola Mirotic will be in the starting lineup at the small forward position. Jimmy Butler moves over to the shooting guard position.

Bulls point guard Rajon Rondo will play against the Lakers after initially being listed as questionable for Sunday's game because of a left ankle sprain. He made his return to the lineup on Saturday after missing two games because of the injury.

Rookie Paul Zipser will miss his second straight game because of a lower back strain. Michael Carter-Williams (left knee/left wrist) and Doug McDermott (concussion protocol) remain out as well.