Chicago Sports

Cubs reliever Codi Heuer appears to have undergone arm surgery. The right-hander posted a photo to Instagram of himself lying in a hospital bed with his throwing arm in a brace, giving a thumb’s up to the camera.

“Horses don’t stop, they keep going!” he captioned the picture. “Can’t wait to be back with the best fans in baseball again!”

Heuer came up in the White Sox’ farm system, taken in the sixth round of the 2018 MLB draft. The Cubs acquired him and second baseman Nick Madrigal at the trade deadline last summer for closer Craig Kimbrel. Heuer posted a 3.14 ERA with the Cubs. The timing of the injury crates complications. MLB team staff members have been instructed not to contact players on the 40-man roster during the lockout, meaning Heuer can’t talk to the Cubs coaching or medical staff until the lockout is lifted.

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PHILADELPHIA – Tristan Thompson has only been a Bull for a few weeks, but he definitely brings an interesting perspective.

It’s debatable on how accurate the big man was, but it’s definitely interesting.

After the 15-point loss to Philadelphia on Monday, Thompson was discussing the current season-high five-game losing streak the team was crawling through. According to the veteran center, there’s a defensive blueprint going around on how to stop the Bulls, and everyone seems to be studying it.

“I’m making an assumption, but I think how well this team has started off compared to last season, I think people – not our team, I don’t think anyone in our locker room, anyone on our staff is panicking – you’ve got to understand that when you come out that hot in the first half of the season, teams are going to start prepping for you differently,” Thompson said. “Instead of treating it like, ‘Hey, a walk-through, we got the Bulls tonight.’ It’s ‘Hey this is a potential playoff matchup and we’ve got to throw some wrinkles in our scheme to see how they’ll react.’

“Memphis showed it first with how they played us defensively, and it continued on with Miami. And I think that film from Memphis has started to be sent from the video guys to those other playoff teams in the league and they’re going to have the same game plan coming in defensively. So we’ve got to make those adjustments.”

Hold up.

While Thompson didn’t detail what that blueprint was from the Grizzlies – for obvious reasons – it’s safe to assume that the frequent double-teaming and blitzing they did on DeMar DeRozan was what he was referring to.

If DeRozan swung the ball to Zach LaVine, the defense was rotating to LaVine, leaving the corner three-pointer open. Basically, it was smother DeRozan, be prepared for LaVine, keep Nikola Vucevic covered with the big, and make anyone else on the Bulls roster beat them.

Because of Memphis’ athleticism and length they did a solid job of messing with DeRozan’s efficiency – he shot 10-of-29 – and the other Bulls players not named DeRozan or LaVine did shoot a combined 4-for-15 from three, so there’s some merit to that.

Where Thompson’s theory loses a bit of steam, however, was Memphis wasn’t the only team to play the Bulls this way. Miami has done that basically in all three meetings, Milwaukee attacked DeRozan in the fourth with only one player – Jrue Holiday, and Philadelphia gave the Bulls multiple defensive looks throughout the night, sometimes double-teaming DeRozan to get the ball out of his hands, but also throwing different individual players at him.

It’s not the blueprint that’s been dooming the Bulls as much as it’s the talent level of the opposing personnel.

But hey, give Thompson an A for effort. Maybe feeling like it’s an adjustment here, a tweak there, is better than facing the reality that four of the five teams in this streak are just better and more talented.

What coach Billy Donovan has to get them believing is that while help will be coming with Alex Caruso (wrist), Patrick Williams (wrist) and Lonzo Ball (knee), the immediate help has to come from the player currently looking in the mirror.

“We’ve had 16 games the entire year with Lonzo, Alex, Vooch, DeMar and Zach, 16-some games,” Donovan said. “Our guys are fighting and we can be better. I agree we have not performed really well against these [elite] teams and our margin for error against these teams is very small. Certainly Alex, Patrick and Lonzo make us better defensively.

“That’s not to say they are the cure for all this. And I’m not making excuses because we have to be better because we don’t know if we’ll even get whole.”

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A person was killed and six others were hurt in citywide gun violence Monday.

A woman was shot to death Monday afternoon in Jackson Park Highlands on the South Side.

Just after 3 p.m., the 35-year-old was sitting in her vehicle in the 6700 block of South Jeffery Boulevard when a black sedan pulled up alongside her and someone inside opened fire, Chicago police said.

She was struck in the shoulder and face and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center where she was pronounced dead, police said. She has not yet been identified.

Minutes earlier, a 17-year-old boy was killed in a shooting during an argument in an Englewood business.

The teen boy was shot around 2:50 p.m. at a retail store in the 6600 block of South Morgan Avenue, police said.

He was struck in his armpit and taken to the University of Chicago Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, police and the Cook County medical examiner’s office said. His name hasn’t been released.

Police initially said the teenager was a 21-year-old man.

Monday morning, a 16-year-old was shot and wounded in Little Village on the Southwest Side.

He was shot while walking home around 11:45 a.m. in the 3000 block of West 25th Street, police said. The boy was struck in his chest and leg, police said. He went to Mount Sinai Hospital, where his condition stabilized.

At least four others were wounded in shootings across Chicago Monday.

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Young took the court with a notable absence Monday. Guard Marcus Pigram was out with an ankle injury, and junior forward Daniel Johnson started in his place. Johnson is a terrific player, but Pigram’s absence left the Dolphins’ backcourt thin.

That meant junior Dalen Davis had to do it all. He had to find a way to limit turnovers and control the pace against the speed and waves of athletic depth Kenwood was bound to throw at him.

Davis succeeded, orchestrating a 75-62 victory against the Broncos in the Class 4A UIC Supersectional. Young will face Barrington in the state semifinals Friday in Champaign.

”We have the best guard in the city, so it didn’t matter how many we had on the court,” Dolphins coach Tyrone Slaughter said. ”He isn’t All-Area or any of those things, but he’s pretty good.”

Davis finished with 18 points and seven assists and shot 6-for-9 from the field.

”The schedule we played this year prepared me,” Davis said. ”We just want to leave a mark. Our goal from the start of the year has been to win city and to win state.”

Young (25-9) jumped out to a 30-19 lead, but Kenwood (26-9) rallied and tied the score at 48 on a free throw by Davius Loury early in the fourth quarter.

That’s when Xavier Amos, who finished with 19 points and five rebounds, responded with a three-point play to give the Dolphins the lead back for good.

”It wasn’t about what they were going to do to us,” Amos said. ”It was about what we were going to do. So we locked in.”

Junior Dai Dai Ames led the Broncos with 21 points and five assists. The matchup between Ames and Davis was spectacular and part of a burgeoning rivalry between the schools. Or not.

”Let me dispel that myth,” Slaughter said. ”There is no rivalry. They have no state championships, and we have five. They have never really beaten us in anything substantive. They have created a rivalry. We don’t see it as a rival.

”As of today, we have shown that we have a superior program with a superior team. Our girls beat their girls in the state playoffs and sent them home. Our boys have done likewise. We are the city champs. There is no rivalry. That myth is over. You have to beat someone to have a rivalry.”

Mike Irvin, in his first full year as Kenwood’s coach, disagreed.

”I’m just getting started,” Irvin said. ”He’s 2-1 against me, but . . . I have the best player in the state, Dai Dai Ames. He electrified that crowd tonight. I don’t think it is going to be a rivalry next year because I have Ames and [Loury] coming back. He’s right. There isn’t going to be a rivalry because I’m going to beat him every time after this.”

Johnson finished with 15 points and AJ Casey with 14 points and six assists for Young. Johnson missed most of the season with an injury, but he has become a key factor for the Dolphins recently.

”He brings energy out on the court for us,” Casey said. ”He’s one of the best shooters on the team, and he defends well and rebounds. He just gives us that extra effort.”

Watch the final minute of Young vs. Kenwood:

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PHILADELPHIA – Philadelphia big man Joel Embiid finished with 43 points, 14 rebounds and three blocked shots.

His partner in crime, James Harden? All the bearded one did was score 16, handout 14 assists, and grab eight rebounds in the 15 point win.

Not bad for the second-best duo on the court Monday night.

That was Zach LaVine’s story a few weeks ago, and the Bulls guard was sticking to it after the latest loss to Philadelphia. Oh by the way, a 121-106 loss that gave the 76ers the series sweep this season.

“We got to figure out how to win some of these games,” LaVine said after. “I’ll take me and DeMar against anybody in the entire world. I feel strongly about that, and I still do. But it doesn’t matter if you don’t win games. We have to start going out there and putting some of these Ws up.”

Specifically, Ws that carry value.

In losing their fifth straight game and going 1-5 out of the All-Star Break, there’s a narrative this Bulls team – now at 39-26 – just can’t escape.

Well, a narrative the media was making up, according to Tristan Thompson.

Of the three teams sitting ahead in the Eastern Conference, the fourth-place Bulls were now 0-4 against Philadelphia, 0-3 against Miami, and 0-2 against the Bucks. When facing the best in the West, the Bulls were a combined 0-4 against Golden State and Memphis, and 0-1 against the conference-leading Suns.

The only wins they have over teams with a winning percentage of .600 or better was a split with Dallas, and beating Utah back on Oct. 30.

That’s a combined record of 2-15 against true contending teams.

Thompson, who won a championship with the Cavaliers in 2016, pointed out the fact that his Cleveland team got beat up all season against Atlanta, and then come playoff times “kicked their ass.”

His point was that this Bulls team wasn’t going to panic over regular-season results.

When informed that this Bulls team doesn’t have LeBron James, Thompson didn’t hesitate in speaking on that.

“We’ve got a lot of good players,” Thompson said. “We’ve got a ‘Big Three’ that’s really [bleepin’] good. And they’re [bleepin’] All-Stars. I think it’s on you guys to create that narrative on whatever our record is. We just got to ask, ‘How can we get better?’ each and every day.”

Hard to do with yet another key player down, as Nikola Vucevic missed the game with a right hamstring strain.

Thompson got the start against Embiid, but like many opposing bigs do, eventually got in foul trouble. What remained troublesome, however, was the consistent ways this group – short-handed or not – continued letting the league’s best beat them.

Too many fouls, too many untimely turnovers, too many bad shots when it matters.

Actually, life without Vucevic couldn’t have started any better on the evening. The Bulls starters came out of the tip-off with urgency, especially on the defensive end, and through the first eight minutes of that first quarter, they even looked to have the 76ers on the ropes, with the home team down eight points and searching for a rhythm. Searching for anything.

They found it – courtesy of the Bulls bench. Over the final four minutes of the first, Philadelphia turned the deficit into a five-point lead.

It was quicksand after that, as the Bulls had a few runs, but never came close to threatening Philadelphia. So what now?

Bulls coach Billy Donovan wants everyone looking in a mirror, starting with himself, to figure out how to fix what’s broken.

LaVine said it’s about finding an identity.

“It’s not the end of the world,” LaVine said. “We have to go out there and compete, and find an identity with whoever is on the floor.”

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Simeon senior Aviyon Morris made sure to walk over and wave goodbye to Lemont’s large student section after the Wolverines’ 52-47 victory in a Class 3A supersectional Monday at UIC’s Credit Union 1 Arena.

Morris scored only three points, but he was one of the Simeon players most responsible for ending Lemont’s season. The 5-7 senior is the most disruptive defensive force in the area.

Morris teamed with junior Michael Ratliff to help hold Lemont sophomore Nojus Indrusaitis to 10 points. He was 3-for-14 shooting.

”He’s a great player,” Morris said. ”We just wanted to chase him and make him put the ball on the floor a little bit. Michael did a great job on him when I was out. That was a key to our success.”

Miles Rubin, a 6-8 junior, led the Wolverines (28-5) with 22 points, eight rebounds and six blocks. Rubin has been one of Simeon’s best players all season, but coach Robert Smith preferred to use him off the bench.

Rubin entered the starting lineup in the regional final. He scored six points in the first two minutes against Lemont (27-8) to help the Wolverines open a 13-0 lead.

”It was important for us to get out to a quick start and play with a lot of energy,” Rubin said.

Lemont was forced to play catch-up the rest of the way. A three-pointer by junior Conor Murray with 3:14 left cut Simeon’s lead to 44-40, then two free throws by Indrusaitis with 33 seconds to play pulled Lemont to two points.

Lemont forced a turnover on the ensuing inbounds play, then threw the ball out of bounds. Wolverines junior Jalen Griffith made two free throws with 16 seconds left to seal the Wolverines’ victory.

”There was a little mental lapse that happens when you get a big lead,” Smith said. ”Guys get lackadaisical.”

Ratliff finished with nine points and Griffith with seven. Junior Wesley Rubin added four points, eight rebounds and five assists.

”When we started this in June, nobody gave us a chance,” Smith said. ”We went winless at Riverside-Brookfield this summer. But we got together as a group and knew once we got to practice and the guys bought in that we would be fine.”

Matas Castillo led Lemont with 16 points, and Joseph Pender added seven.

Simeon senior Jaylen Drane fouled in the fourth quarter. There were nine juniors on the court to finish the game, so the teams might meet up in the supersectional round again next season.

”Starting slow is always bad,” Indrusaitis said. ”We should have picked up the tempo right from the beginning and came at them harder.”

Lemont coach Rick Runaas praised Simeon’s style of play.

”It was kind of old-school basketball,” Runaas said. ”It was nice to see a big team play big. When you are big, you should take advantage.”

Simeon will face Metamora in the Class 3A semifinals Friday.

”Some teams I’ve had before were just satisfied with winning this game and went downstate and didn’t do what they were supposed to do,” Smith said. ”So we need to stay locked in and get prepared.”

Watch the final minute of Simeon vs. Lemont:

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PHILADELPHIA – Billy Donovan doesn’t do ambiguity very well.

So when asked on Monday if Zach LaVine’s left knee can get healthier this season or was this just who the All-Star guard will be until the Bulls are done playing out the 2021-22 campaign, the coach didn’t hesitate.

“This is him,” Donovan said. “The doctors feel that the most important thing is his health and everybody feeling comfortable with him. Obviously the group of people that were involved, they’re the best in the world, so everybody is very comfortable. The lubricant, the things that he had placed into his knee, was something to try and give him some relief from what he was experiencing.

“The biggest thing, and what people need to understand about this too, is he is not dealing with pain. That’s not the issue. The issue is sometimes he gets some swelling, some stiffness and tightness in there, and he doesn’t feel like he has all the way his mobility, flexibility, explosiveness, that kind of stuff. [Monday] he feels much, much better than he did before he did this. Now the biggest question is going to be can he feel this way until the end of the year?”

And that’s the daily question for LaVine?

Is he the guy that can wink at the laws of gravity as he blows by an opposing defender to the rim or is he the guy that doesn’t trust the way the knee feels that day and is a spot-up shooter?

Because there’s a big difference.

Enough so that Donovan had a discussion with LaVine about it yet again recently. According to Donovan, LaVine’s numbers in attacking the paint have gone steadily down, and they need that to change.

“Zach is a really, really interesting guy because I think when people look at him or see him, and see his overall natural ability and talent, first at the core of who he is, he’s a really good team guy,” Donovan said. “So I think one of the things that’s happened in my opinion is him being out as much as he’s been out … He’s trying to figure out how does he now inject himself back into the group, where’s he kind of fitting in?

He’s got to get downhill and we’ve got to get to the free throw line more, put more pressure on that basket. That’s really important for us.

“We just need him to be who he is.”

Or at least who he is that day.

Three men out

Alex Caruso, Patrick Williams and Lonzo Ball were all with their teammates in Philadelphia, but according to Donovan, they won’t finish out the trip.

Because Tuesday is a practice day in Detroit, followed by Wednesday’s game with the Pistons and then a possible off-day, the medical staff felt it would be better to get the three home and continue their individual rehab the next three days.

Caruso and Williams have been dealing with wrist injuries, and the hope is they would be getting scanned sooner than later to figure out when they can start taking contact in practice, while Ball (knee surgery) continued his running rehab as he tries to figure out a return timetable.

“The medical people feel that could be a good three or four days for them inside the facility,” Donovan said. “We’re trying to balance them being with the team, interacting with those guys, and keeping that personal connection, but also giving them the opportunity that they can ramp up and get back by doing the things they have to do, and probably the best place for them to do that is in Chicago.”

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As MLB fans await what they hope is the end to the lock out and getting teams back on the field, players are expressing their frustrations as well with what’s going on.

The latest? Chicago Cubs third baseman Patrick Wisdom.

Wisdom went on air with 670 The Score to share his thoughts on the MLB lockout. Wisdom had an impressive rookie season with the Cubs in 2021.

“There’s no Opening Day because the league has not negotiated in good faith,” Wisdom said on the Parkins & Spiegel Show on Wednesday. “We’re fighting to make it fair on both sides. I understand it’s a business, and I understand both sides need to come together and communicate and negotiate to get something done. We can’t just keep having days where there’s nothing going and we can’t have 43 days before anybody talks. I think that’s another reason why we’re at where we’re at right now. If we would’ve had this week of negotiating 40 days ago, we’d be in a much better spot. But it is what it is now ….

Wisdom’s thoughts have been echoed by many players across the league. The notion that the league is not negotiating in good faith seems to be a common belief. Wisdom’s newest teammate, Marcus Stroman, has been outspoken against the commissioner and the progress of the CBA negotiations.

Other Cubs players have voiced their displeasure as well, but Wisdom brings an interesting perspective to the ordeal. Wisdom spent a large portion of his career in the minor leagues. Wisdom describes how playing professional baseball isn’t always the lavish lifestyle that some may think.

“I’ve spent time in the minor leagues, I was making maybe two-thousand dollars a month… and then I’m sleeping on an air mattress in an apartment with four other guys…”

Everybody has a different journey to the majors. After only his first year there, Wisdom finds himself in unchartered waters.

“That is fair – yeah, I’m conflicted,” Wisdom said. “Like you said, I spent a lot of time in the minor leagues – so not represented by the union – and I was able to go out and play, we didn’t really have these kinds of conflicts. So now that I’m in it, it’s new to me. And I understand it fully, I understand why we’re doing this and why the two sides need to come together and what they’re arguing about. I get it. But my old self is like, ‘Yeah, but we need to play. I need to play games and earn money and provide for my family and put food on the table.’”

Make sure to check out our Cubs forum for the latest on the team.

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The Chicago Bulls have maintained the top seed in the eastern conference for much of this season but ince the all-star break, the Bulls have begun to slow down quite a bit.

The Bulls still maintain a solid record of 39-25. That currently has them at the 4th spot in the east. The eastern conference has been very competitive this season compared to recent years. A short winning streak or losing streak can drastically change a team’s position in the current standings.

The Bulls’ current losing streak sits at four games. These four games have been against some of the top teams in the league, including the Miami Heat, Memphis Grizzlies, and Milwaukee Bucks. There have been a lot of question marks surrounding the Bulls lately. Especially about their ability to compete with these heavyweight contenders around the league.

With 18 games left in the regular season, is it time for Bulls fans to hit the panic button? Not quite.

By the time the playoffs come around, the Bulls’ roster should look very different. The Bulls did not make any moves at the trade deadline because of the reinforcements they have coming back from injury. Patrick Williams, Alex Caruso, and Lonzo ball are all expected back in the lineup by mid to late March. Although none of these players are bonafide superstars, their presence will drastically change how the Bulls perform.

The injury to Patrick Williams occurred at the very beginning of the season. He was able to play in the first five games before his wrist injury forced him to be sidelined for 4-6 months. In those 5 games, the Bulls were able to achieve a 5-0 record. What the 20-year old will bring to the lineup has yet to be seen. This season was meant to be hugely important to his development. Now the inexperienced Williams will have to find a way to contribute to this deep roster as it heads into the highly competitive eastern conference playoffs.

Lonzo Ball and Alex Caruso coming back should be a huge spark to this Bulls team. Their energy on the defensive end has an immeasurable impact on games. When healthy, these two guards can arguably be considered among the top defensive guards in the league.

It’s clear that the Bulls are a much better team when Ball and Caruso are on the floor. Their presence greatly changes the way the Bulls are able to perform as a team. With Ball averaging 1.8 steals per game and Caruso with 1.9, the Bulls have a much easier time setting the tone defensively and getting fastbreak points. This can make all the difference in tight games like the Bulls’ loss to Milwaukee on Friday night.

Before getting injured, Alex Caruso had emerged as what appears to be a defensive captain of sorts. Teammates have praised not only his defensive skills but his communication as well.

Maybe I’m optimistic, but this losing streak along with the poor performances against the top teams isn’t enough for me to start looking towards next season. Yes, every team has injury setbacks but the Bulls are a completely different team when their defensive specialists are available.

Hit the panic button if you want, but the Bulls still have a lot of fight left.

Make sure to check out our Bulls forum for the latest on the team.

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The Chicago Bears are set to enter their first free agency period in the Ryan Poles and Matt Eberflus regime as they look to build the roster and get them back to a contender. Right now, Chicago’s best piece to build around is quarterback Justin Fields who had a roller coaster of a rookie season with Matt Nagy and company.

Many believe Fields has the talent to be one of the best young quarterbacks in the league but he needs to take a step forward here in year two. But as we get set for the offseason, a new report from The Athletic from NFL execs state that Fields’ throwing motion is a point of emphasis for the Bears this offseason.

“He can be good,” a league source added. “But there are obviously some things that need to be fixed. … How long will that take?”

That was the consensus opinion. Several league contacts pointed to Fields’ mechanics, specifically his elongated throwing motion. But conversations were generally positive, a key difference from 2020 when questions and concerns about Trubisky were widespread. Fields’ deep ball was highlighted.

Most viewed the Bears’ hiring of offensive coordinator Luke Getsy favorably, but some had questions about quarterbacks coach Andrew Janocko.

The piece from Kevin Fishbain and Adam Jahns’ is fantastic and gives fans a look at what other NFL execs think of the Bears situation.

Fields does have a baseball background which may help or hurt his mechanics but we did see some flashes of really good throws last year. His development remains the single most important thing for the franchise moving forward and that’s clear.

Make sure to check out our Bears forum for the latest on the team.

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