Chicago Sports

MILWAUKEE — Bucks forwards Khris Middleton and Bobby Portis each exited with injuries on Wednesday against the Chicago Bulls and did not return.

Middleton slipped on a drive to the basket during the fourth quarter of Game 2 of this first-round series and began favoring his left leg. He attempted to stretch and flex his leg on the sidelines before heading to the locker room. The team announced later in the quarter that he would not return due to knee soreness.

Portis was hit in the face by an elbow from Bulls center Tristan Thompson while the two went up for a rebound during the first quarter. No foul was called on the play, but Portis fell to the ground after contact and was bleeding near his right eye after the play.

Portis attempted to warm up briefly after halftime, but only stayed on the court for a short period of time before heading back to the locker room. Shortly after the third quarter began, the Bucks ruled him out for the rest of the game with a right eye abrasion.

Portis scored two points and grabbed two rebounds in six minutes.

The injury news wasn’t much better prior to Game 2 for the defending NBA champions. Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said during his pregame media availability, that veteran guard George Hill wasn’t expected to return anytime soon from the abdominal strain that has prevented him from playing in the series.

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“We don’t expect him in the short term,” Budenholzer said.

Budenholzer said this issue is unrelated to the neck injury that caused Hill to miss 17 games earlier in the season. Hill said after returning from that injury that he’d been dealing with a partial tear between the sixth and seventh thoracic vertebra in his spine.

According to Budenholzer, the latest injury stems from something that happened in the Bucks’ April 8 game at Detroit. Hill hasn’t played since.

“We’ll see how he progresses over the next I’d say handful of days or more,” Budenholzer said.

Hill, 35, played 54 games during the regular season and averaged 6.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 23.2 minutes.

Jevon Carter filled Hill’s spot in the rotation the Bucks’ 93-86 Game 1 victory and scored three points in 10 minutes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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GLENDALE, Ariz. — Music blared out of the Blackhawks’ locker room at Gila River Arena late Wednesday night after the Hawks’ 4-3 overtime win against the Coyotes. A few smiles and laughs were shared in the hallway outside.

Those sights and sounds have been exceedingly rare this spring. The Hawks are eager to savor them.

“We let them back in the game there, but it’s nice to get a win, feel good about our game and move on,” Alex DeBrincat said.

DeBrincat’s 40th goal of the season, a backdoor tap-in set up by Patrick Kane with 37 seconds left in overtime, proved the difference in a wide-open game between two of the NHL’s worst teams. The Hawks finished with a 46-26 edge in scoring chances and 40-35 edge in shots on goal.

Dueling goaltenders Kevin Lankinen and Karel Vejmelka robbed Jack McBain and Dominik Kubalik, respectively, shortly beforehand to keep the game going.

The Hawks looked on track to earn their first regulation win since March 24, nearly a month ago, when they led 2-0 at the first intermission and 3-1 at the second. But the Coyotes rallied in the final period as the Hawks let yet another lead slip away.

“When we have the lead, we don’t realize that we don’t need to score a goal every shift,” interim coach Derek King said. “We have a 3-1 lead. Sometimes you need a ‘live to fight another day’ kind of attitude. You don’t have to make that extra play to see if we can get some offense going. That’s where we’re making mistakes, and that’s what has been costing us this season.”

Even without the regulation qualifier, the win is still just the Hawks’ fourth since March 13th and second in their last 12 games.

They split the four-game season series against the Coyotes, who have now lost nine straight and been outscored 47-13 over that span. With the Coyotes moving into Arizona State’s arena next season, the Hawks will finish with an all-time (regular season) record of 17-9-4 at Gila River Arena.

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MILWAUKEE — Bucks forwards Khris Middleton and Bobby Portis each exited with injuries on Wednesday against the Chicago Bulls and did not return.

Middleton slipped on a drive to the basket during the fourth quarter of Game 2 of this first-round series and began favoring his left leg. He attempted to stretch and flex his leg on the sidelines before heading to the locker room. The team announced later in the quarter that he would not return due to knee soreness.

Portis was hit in the face by an elbow from Bulls center Tristan Thompson while the two went up for a rebound during the first quarter. No foul was called on the play, but Portis fell to the ground after contact and was bleeding near his right eye after the play.

Portis attempted to warm up briefly after halftime, but only stayed on the court for a short period of time before heading back to the locker room. Shortly after the third quarter began, the Bucks ruled him out for the rest of the game with a right eye abrasion.

Portis scored two points and grabbed two rebounds in six minutes.

The injury news wasn’t much better prior to Game 2 for the defending NBA champions. Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer said during his pregame media availability, that veteran guard George Hill wasn’t expected to return anytime soon from the abdominal strain that has prevented him from playing in the series.

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“We don’t expect him in the short term,” Budenholzer said.

Budenholzer said this issue is unrelated to the neck injury that caused Hill to miss 17 games earlier in the season. Hill said after returning from that injury that he’d been dealing with a partial tear between the sixth and seventh thoracic vertebra in his spine.

According to Budenholzer, the latest injury stems from something that happened in the Bucks’ April 8 game at Detroit. Hill hasn’t played since.

“We’ll see how he progresses over the next I’d say handful of days or more,” Budenholzer said.

Hill, 35, played 54 games during the regular season and averaged 6.2 points, 2.9 rebounds, 2.2 assists and 23.2 minutes.

Jevon Carter filled Hill’s spot in the rotation the Bucks’ 93-86 Game 1 victory and scored three points in 10 minutes.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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MILWAUKEE – Confidence hasn’t been an issue for Patrick Williams since the day the Bulls made him the No. 4 pick in the 2020 NBA Draft.

Assertiveness on the offensive side of the ball, showing up late for a shootaround, consistent availability, now those are where there’s been a few stumbles for the power forward, but not in the confidence department.

That was on full display Wednesday, when Williams was discussing his ongoing showdown of drawing the Giannis Antetokounmpo defensive assignment.

“It’s the same way you get ready for anybody else,” Williams said. “First of all don’t be scared. I feel like a lot of people in this league are scared or nervous to guard guys like that. Obviously [Antetokounmpo’s] good, he’s a two-time MVP, but he puts his pants on the same way I do. So just knowing that, he’s good but he’s not God.”

Brash words from the second-year player who still wasn’t old enough to get in any Wisconsin drinking establishments, but then backed up in the Game 2 114-110 Bulls win.

Thanks to Williams and the execution of a stellar defensive game plan, the Bulls made life as difficult as a team can on Antetokounmpo, evening the best-of-seven first-round series 1-1.

It was not only the first time the Bulls beat Milwaukee this season, but the first time they beat a team with a winning percentage over .600 since Nov.10.

And as far as Antetokounmpo? He wasn’t a “God.” He wasn’t even the best player on the floor. That was DeMar DeRozan, who set a new playoff career high with 41 points on 16-of-31 shooting.

Antetokounmpo did finish with 33 points and 18 rebounds, but the effort he had to put in on both ends of the floor was seemingly draining.

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The rain, which had already begun to drive fans to the concourse by the time the Wrigley Field grounds crew pulled the tarp mid-sixth inning, cut short the series finale between the Cubs and Rays.

But even under different circumstances, making up the deficit would have been a tall order for the Cubs.

The Cubs lost 8-2 after 5 1/2 innings on Wednesday, an official game, fighting from behind from the beginning.

Cubs right-hander Marcus Stroman walked the first batter he faced, suggesting command issues from the get-go.

He’d fought rhythm issues in the final inning of his last start.

“Just got to be better,” Stroman said then. “Just not acceptable from my point of view, from my perspective. I was kind of cruising through three and then just kind of lost my way in the fourth mechanically, feel-wise. Just got to be better.”

He looked similarly out of sync Wednesday, allowing eight runs – tied for a career high – seven of which were earned. In 4 1/3 innings, Stroman issued two walks and struck out seven.

After allowing four runs in the first inning, he battled back to throw two scoreless frames, in the third and fourth. But an infield error and a pair of extra-base hits paved the way for another Rays rally in the fifth inning.

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CLEVELAND — The White Sox waited three days to play their worst baseball Wednesday.

After two days of sitting out bad weather in Cleveland for two postponed games, it looked like they hadn’t played in three weeks. In one of their worst displays of defense seen in recent memory, the Sox infield made four errors in the first two innings and left-hander Dallas Keuchel allowed eight consecutive hits, all singles except for a Jose Ramirez grand slam, in an 11-1 loss in the first game of a doubleheader.

Manager Tony La Russa blamed himself for not having his team ready.

“I mean, that’s just a manager kind of taking blame,” said Keuchel, knowing it wasn’t La Russa’s fault. “I knew we were going to be in a dogfight [with Shane Bieber pitching for the Indians]. So I tried to do the best I could. Looking back, a lot of the guys would probably say ‘I wish I could have done better’ but it is what it is. You’ve got to move on.”

The Sox quickly moved on to the second game of a doubleheader, made necessary by Tuesday’s postponement, and managed just three hits in a 2-1 loss, completing a Guardians sweep. La Russa, looking long term and aiming to keep his team’s legs fresh, rested Anderson, Abreu, Eloy Jimenez (sore ankle) and Luis Robert.

But back to that bad defense that took the Sox out of Game 1 almost instantly. The fiasco started with bad throws by shortstop Tim Anderson and third baseman Jake Burger on the Guardians’ first two at-bats. Abreu was in position for a backhand scoop of Burger’s throw made on the run, but he failed to glove the ball. Anderson made two more fielding errors in the second as the Sox fell behind 10-0 against Bieber.

One of the 10 hits against Keuchel was originally scored an error on Abreu, failing to backhand a ground ball he probably should have had. The official scorer’s change cut the Sox total of errors from five to four.

“The manager didn’t get them ready to play,” La Russa said. “I take the heat for that.

“It’s a common problem, you have an off day and you have to push. And I didn’t push the club like I should have.”

Keuchel was charged with a career high 10 runs (eight earned). He struck out one batter and walked none. Despite the awful line that launched his ERA to 16.50 over two starts, Keuchel knew he deserved better.

“Just when you think you’ve seen it all, you really haven’t,” Keuchel said.

Keuchel felt like he made only two bad pitches, one of them a cutter to Ramirez that was ripped for the Indians’ third slam of the young season.

“I’ll take nine singles and a blast,” Keuchel said. “Three hard hit balls all day. First pitch swings, ground balls, I mean, really all I wanted.”

Keuchel is the second Sox pitcher to give 10 runs in an inning of work, joining MIlt Gaston, who gave up 10 on June 13, 1934.

His replacement, 30-year-old rookie lefty Tanner Banks, was much better with four perfect innings. Banks struck out two and threw 37 of 49 pitches for strikes while keeping his ERA at 0.00 over four appearances and 9 1/3 innings.

Anderson did make two nice plays but after the game was out of reach. Bieber, meanwhile, cruised with six innings of one-run ball, striking out seven and walking none while allowing four hits, one of them an RBI double by Anderson. The Sox struck out a season high 10 times.

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Only so much can be extrapolated from 11 games-worth of statistics. But Cubs manager David Ross sees the Cubs’ contact numbers as reflective of the team’s new offensive makeup.

“On paper, that’s the personnel we have, right?” Ross said before the Cubs faced the Rays Wednesday. “[Nick] Magical is going to make a lot of contact. Nico [Hoerner] is going to make a lot of contact. Frank Schwindel is going to make a lot of contact. Seiya [Suzuki] seems to be a guy that’s going to control the strike zone and not punch out a whole lot. We have that profile up and down our lineup.”

Entering play Wednesday, the Cubs had the fifth highest contact rate in the National League (78.0), according to FanGraphs. They’d finished 2021 last in that category (73.6 percent).

“Certainly there’s been a lot of contact,” Cubs president of baseball operations Jed Hoyer said this week. “I think, certainly, that’s a little bit of a change from the past. We’re definitely way less explosive than we were. But we also, I feel like we’ve faced some pretty good pitchers so far, and we’ve been able to limit the strikeout numbers, for the most part, and put the ball in play.

“We’ve got to get the ball in the air more. That’s obvious. And then double play numbers have to normalize at some point a little bit. They’re exceptionally high right now.”

Entering play Wednesday, the Cubs had grounded into 15 double plays, leading Major League Baseball. Some of that reflected how often they were getting on base. Some of it was their ground ball rate (44.4 percent).

“On the positive side, the contact,” Hoyer continued. “On the negative side, the ball’s on the ground too much. That’s what we have to address. There’s always something you’re addressing, and that’s certainly one thing right now.”

The Cubs also had the lowest launch angle in the major leagues (6 degrees) entering Wednesday, per Statcast. But the offense has been effective over the first 11 games of the season, ranked fifth in the NL in runs scored entering Wednesday, with 53.

After the Cubs’ 4-2 win against the Rays on Monday, Cubs outfielder Ian Happ wore an Obvious Shirts t-shirt that read, “Launch angle is overrated.”

Asked if that was true, he said, “Today it was, yeah.”

Happ’s go-ahead RBI single that game had a launch angle of 6 degrees. Point taken. Happ also expects those team numbers to normalize as the season continues.

“There will be more damage by this group, as guys get into a rhythm,” Happ said in a conversation with the Sun-Times last week. “I haven’t produced much damage yet. There’s other guys that you’re used to hitting the ball out of the ballpark that just some of those things here happened yet. But I think it’s coming. I think that the plate discipline, and just the hits in general, is pretty impressive.”

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CLEVELAND — White Sox infielder Josh Harrison exited Game 2 of the team’s doubleheader with the Guardians Wednesday with right shoulder soreness.

Harrison, playing third base, jumped over left fielder Andrew Vaughn and tumbled to the ground after making a long running catch of Jose Ramirez’ pop fly in the fifth.

Harrison, who was replaced by Jake Burger, is being further evaluated.

Harrison, who is batting .107 in his first season with the Sox, missed two games last week with low back stiffness.

Eloy out with sore ankle

Left fielder Eloy Jimenez, still sore after fouling a pitch off his left ankle against the Mariners Wednesday, missed both ends of the doublheader. Jimenez played all three games of last weekend’s series against the Rays and had Monday and Tuesday off because of postponed games in Cleveland.

“He twisted it somehow, too, making some kind of move after he got hit or something,” manager Tony La Russa said. “It’s more than just the bruise. There’s some swelling there. But that’s how it started.”

Toward the end of the weekend, Jimenez “didn’t have a good foundation with that one leg” at the plate, La Russa said.He did some running and took some swings indoors Wednesday.

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The Chicago Bears continued doing their homework on prospects as we are over a week away from the start of the 2022 NFL draft.

New general manager Ryan Poles has been busy this offseason visiting with potential Bear draft picks, hosting them via zoom and in person. News broke Wednesday the Bears were using their final visit day to connect with a linebacker.

Per multiple reports, the Bears met with Iowa State Linebacker Jake Hummel as Halas Hall. The Cyclone product is considered to be a late Day 3 pick or an undrafted free agent, per the updated mock drafts on NFL Mock Draft Database.

While Hummel has a Day 3 grade, he put together an impressive Pro Day with numbers that rank among the best in the class for linebackers. That potentially helped his stock last month and now he’s wrapping up visits with teams.

The Iowa native recorded 39 tackles and one sack to go along with two interceptions in his fifth-year senior season in Big 12.

As for his position at the next level, NFLDraftBuzz.com projects him as a MIKE linebacker:

“An intelligent player who can play “MIKE” linebacker despite his lack of size because of his instincts and ability to find the ball in traffic.” Although his weaknesses tend to be athleticism, specifically in a lack of speed, agility, and physicality.

With the Bears switching to the 4-3 in new head coach Matt Eberflus’ system, the Bears will be looking to for someone to fill the “mike” position with Roquan Smith potentially playing  the”Will.”

Chicago has a handful of picks on Day 3 and Hummel could be a player we see selected by Poles in bhis first draft class.

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

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