With a cast on his right thumb, Chicago Bulls’ Rajon Rondo, center, sits on the bench during Game 3 of the team’s NBA basketball first-round playoff series against the Boston Celtics in Chicago, Friday, April 21, 2017. (AP Photo/Charles Rex Arbogast)
Chicago point guard Rajon Rondo has tested his ailing right wrist and broken thumb but remains a “long shot” to return to NBA playoff action for the Bulls’ game five against the Boston Celtics on Wednesday.
“This is honestly the first time he has touched a basketball with that right hand,” Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said after Rondo took a few set shots with his right hand at practice on Tuesday.
“We’ll see how it goes,” Hoiberg said. “Just watching him wince a little bit when the ball was coming to him makes me think it’s a long shot. But if there’s anybody who can do it and will try to fight through it, it’s Rondo because of the competitor he is.”
The Bulls and Celtics are tied at two games apiece in the best-of-seven Eastern Conference first-round series.
With Rondo directing their offense the Bulls won the first two games of the series, but he broke his thumb in game two and the Bulls dropped the next two games without him.