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MILWAUKEE — Milwaukee Bucks coach Mike Budenholzer entered the NBA’s health and safety protocols prior to Wednesday’s game against the Toronto Raptors.

Assistant coach Darvin Ham was the acting head coach in his absence.

“My job, the way I see it, is basically keep the bus moving forward in the right direction,” Ham said before the game. “Don’t have to come up with a new map. The GPS has already been put in championship.

“These are some unfortunate times, unfortunate circumstances, but I’m not looking to make a big splash and prove to the world that I can really coach. I know that already. I’m very comfortable in my role here.”

Bucks star Giannis Antetokounmpo also missed Wednesday’s game with a non-COVID-19 related illness, the team announced. The Bucks also have guards Grayson Allen and Pat Connaughton sidelined in health and safety protocols.

Ham, who has been a part of Budenholzer’s staff since 2013 when the two were with the Atlanta Hawks, said Budenholzer was asymptomatic when he tested positive for COVID-19 following an individual workout day for Bucks players on Tuesday night.

“I’m definitely ready if I need to be called upon,” Ham said. “I miss having my guy around. I’m not just saying that, Bud and I have been together now for almost a decade and it’s been a joy to coach with him, work with him and learn something new from him almost everyday.”

In addition to an eight-year playing career and being a longtime assistant coach, Ham has also interviewed for head coaching jobs in recent years. He also has experience coaching in the G-League, back when it was called the D-League, so he said he’d feel more anxious instead of nervous for his Bucks coaching debut.

It’s the second time Ham has filled in for Budenholzer as head coach. The other instance occurred during their tenure with the Hawks in March 2017 after Budenholzer was suspended by the NBA for a game for bumping an official on the sidelines.

Ham recalled how that game against the Indiana Pacers still stings because the Hawks had a lead with two minutes remaining in the game before ultimately losing on a 3-pointer by Glenn Robinson III with just 0.6 seconds remaining. Especially considering Ham was teammates with Robinson’s father — Glenn Robinson II, who was also in attendance — during his playing career in both Milwaukee and Atlanta.

“I don’t do social media, but I told him, after the game, his father, big fella and little Glenn and myself, we’re sitting and talking after the game, I told him dude if I was on Twitter or whatever it is, I would unfollow you like right now,” Ham said with a laugh. “You’re not supposed to do that to your uncle. I’ve known him since he was a little kid.”

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Please send scores and corrections to [email protected]

Wednesday, January 5, 2022

BIG NORTHERN

Rock Falls at Genoa-Kingston, 7:00

CATHOLIC – CROSSOVER

Providence at Fenwick, 7:00

CHICAGO PREP

Christ the King at Ida Crown, 7:00

FOX VALLEY

Crystal Lake South at Cary-Grove, 7:00

Dundee-Crown at Prairie Ridge, 7:00

Hampshire at Crystal Lake Central, 7:30

Jacobs at Burlington Central, 7:00

McHenry at Huntley, 7:00

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL

Lake Forest Acad-Blk at Elgin Academy, 6:00

Northridge at University High, PPD

INTERSTATE EIGHT

Sandwich at Rochelle, 6:45

METRO PREP

Universal at Horizon-McKinley, 5:30

METRO SUBURBAN – BLUE

St. Francis at IC Catholic, 7:30

NIC – 10

Belvidere North at Auburn, 7:00

Guilford at Freeport, 7:15

Hononegah at Boylan, 7:00

Belvidere at Jefferson, 7:00

Rockford East at Harlem, 7:00

NOBLE LEAGUE – BLUE

Golder at Hansberry, 7:00

Noble Street at Baker, 7:00

Pritzker at Noble Academy, 7:00

Rauner at Muchin, 7:00

UIC at Mansueto, 7:00

NORTHEASTERN ATHLETIC

South Beloit at Alden-Hebron, 7:00

NORTHERN LAKE COUNTY

Antioch at Lakes, 7:00

Grant at Grayslake Central, 7:00

Round Lake at Grayslake North, 7:00

Wauconda at North Chicago, 7:00

SOUTHLAND

Thornridge at Crete-Monee, 5:00

NON CONFERENCE

Chicago Collegiate at Excel-Englewood, 5:30

Clemente at Curie, 5:00

Downers Grove North at Lincoln-Way Central, 6:30

Earlville at St. Bede, 7:00

Englewood STEM at Raby, 5:00

Fasman Yeshiva at Hope Academy, 8:00

Galva at LaMoille, 7:00

Holy Trinity at Wells, 5:00

Intrinsic at Prosser, 6:30

Marengo at Stillman Valley, 7:00

Morgan Park Academy at Wolcott, 6:00

Payton at Lane, 5:00

Perspectives-MSA at Mather, 5:00

Phoenix at Hubbard, 6:30

Plainfield South at Lincoln-Way West, 6:30

Proviso West at Austin, 5:30

Romeoville at Bolingbrook, 6:30

Taft at Yorkville Christian, PPD

Walther Christian at Mooseheart, 7:30

Westlake Christian at Richmond-Burton, 7:00

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Robert Quinn’s chances of leading the NFL in sacks probably evaporated when Steelers’ linebacker T.J. Watt had four against the Browns on Monday night to give him 21.5 — and a 3.5-sack lead over Quinn. But, with a franchise-record 18 sacks, Quinn still has a chance to break his career high of 19 set in 2013 with the Rams.

“It would be kind of cool,” Quinn said. “That was eight years ago. I guess I can show people I still have a little bit left in the tank. It’s cool being eight years from that year. It’s humbling. But you have to get it first before I start talking about it.”

Quinn, who broke Richard Dent’s franchise record for sacks (17.5 in 1984) with his 18th last week against the Giants, said he celebrate his rejuvenating season in typical low-key style.

“I look at the stats and of course I pat myself on the back, but that’s about as far as I go,” Quinn said. “As far as buying a new car or taking a trip across the world for a good season — that’s really not me. I would rather disappear into the woods, go into the country and go fishing or something. That’s my type of speed.”

Good guy winners

Quinn and safety Tashaun Gipson were co-winners of the “Jeff Dickerson Good Guy Award,” from the Chicago chapter of the Pro Football Writers of America. The annual award honors players for their cooperation in helping the media do their jobs.

Wide receiver Darnell Mooney and cornerback Jaylon Johnson also were finalists for this year’s award.

The award was re-named this year in honor of late ESPN reporter Jeff Dickerson, a 20-year veteran on the Bears beat who died of cancer at 43 on Dec. 28.

Happy 99th, Virginia McCaskey

Bears coach Matt Nagy opened his Wednesday press conference by wishing Bears owner Virginia McCaskey a happy 99th birthday. McCaskey, the daughter of Bears founder George Halas, was born in 1923, when the Bears had just finished their third season.

“She’s an amazing lady that has been just so great to be apart of here with this organization, and from Day 1 from me getting to meet her,” Nagy said. “She’s a special person. Pretty amazing — 99 years, and I just want to wish here a happy birthday.”

Injury report

Quinn (shoulder), defensive end Akiem Hicks (ankle), wide receiver Jakeem Grant (ankle) and tight end Jimmy Graham (rest) did not practice Wednesday.

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GREEN BAY, Wis. — Aaron Rodgers had strong words for the MVP voter who said this week that he would not cast his vote for the Green Bay Packers quarterback because he’s “the biggest jerk in the league” and “a bad guy.”

Those comments came from Hub Arkush, a Chicago-based reporter who owns one of the 50 votes for The Associated Press’ Most Valuable Player award.

“I think he’s a bum,” Rodgers said Wednesday. “I think he’s an absolute bum. He doesn’t know me. I don’t know who he is; no one knew who he was, probably, until yesterday’s comments. I listened to the comments, but to say he had his mind made up in the summertime, in the offseason, that I had zero chance of winning MVP, in my opinion, should exclude future votes. His problem isn’t with me being a bad guy or the biggest jerk in the league. He doesn’t know me.”

Arkush, who is the editor of Pro Football Weekly and contributes to other Chicago-area media, made his comments on Chicago radio station 670 The Score and has since said he regrets saying he would not vote for Rodgers because of his issues with the quarterback’s off-the-field habits, such as his decision not to get vaccinated.

“His problem is I’m not vaccinated,” Rodgers said. “So, if he wants to go on a crusade and collude and come up with an extra letter to put on the award just for this season and make it the Most Valuable Vaccinated Player, then he should do that. But he’s a bum and I’m not going to waste any time worrying about that stuff. He has no idea who I am. He’s never talked to me in his life.”

Rodgers acknowledged last month during one of his weekly appearances on The Pat McAfee Show that some voters might hold his viewpoint on the subject of vaccination against him. Rodgers missed one game because he tested positive for COVID-19 and had to quarantine for 10 days because he was unvaccinated. That led to the exposing of Rodgers as an unvaccinated player who before the season told reporters that he had been “immunized” against COVID-19.

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“I don’t think you can be the biggest jerk in the league and punish your team and your organization and your fan base the way he did and be the most valuable player,” Arkush said Tuesday on The Score. “Has he been the most valuable on the field? Yeah, you could make that argument, but I don’t think he is clearly that much more valuable than Jonathan Taylor or Cooper Kupp or maybe even Tom Brady. So from where I sit, the rest of it is why he’s not gonna be my choice.”

Added Arkush: “I just think that the way he’s carried himself is inappropriate. I think he’s a bad guy, and I don’t think a bad guy can be the most valuable guy at the same time.”

In a subsequent appearance on the station, Arkush said he regrets putting other voters in a position to have to answer questions about their votes.

“The only thing I can do going forward is respect what I failed to respect last night and just not talk about it anymore until after the awards have been given,” he said Wednesday.

Although the AP award, which Rodgers has won three times (including for last season), is considered the official MVP award, the NFL is not involved in the process.

Packers coach Matt LaFleur said the only thing that should be considered in the voting is how someone plays on the field.

“I don’t know what else could factor into it than how somebody goes out and performs on a weekly basis,” LaFleur said. “If people are going to judge people for differences of opinion or things that they have no idea what the heck they’re talking about, then I think that just kind of discredits that award. I think we hold that award in high regard. I think most do. And I think it’s an absolute privilege to be able to vote for that award. To consider anything else outside of what you see when that player’s out there playing I think is a disservice to everybody.”

The Packers lost the game Rodgers missed due to the COVID-19 rules but still managed to secure the No. 1 seed in the NFC playoffs with one game remaining. They’re 13-3 heading into Sunday’s regular-season finale at the Detroit Lions.

“I think the MVP should be about the most valuable player on the team,” Rodgers said. “A lot of times it goes to the best player on the best team, and we’re the best team. So if voters want to use the offseason or don’t like my stance being unvaccinated, that’s their prerogative. I don’t think it’s right, but that’s their prerogative.”

Rodgers has thrown 35 touchdown passes and had had only four passes intercepted (two of which came in the season opener) for 3,977 yards while completing 68.6% of his passes.

He likely will have the chance to add to those stats Sunday against the Lions because LaFleur said he does not plan to hold out healthy players even though it’s a so-called meaningless game. However, that does not mean those players will play the entire game.

“We did some studies in terms of how other teams have fared when going into the final week of the season that had a bye, and it was overwhelmingly in favor of giving the guys at least some time,” LaFleur said. “And so, certainly you weigh in that information, but you also talk to your players and these guys want to play. So that’s how we’re going to go about it.”

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The difference between how a coach feels coming out of a game compared to how a fan base feels are often vast.

That was once again on display the last few weeks.

While Bulls fans were contemplating bringing a lawn chair to Grant Park and setting it up in the snow just to make sure they have a great spot for the June championship parade, coach Billy Donovan had concerns.

Sure, the first seven wins in the current eight-game winning streak were impressive considering all the in-and-out for the roster, but Donovan – who missed five of them while spending time in the league’s health and safety protocol – knew it wasn’t sustainable.

That actually those seven wins were more of a mirage when weighed with the big picture.

Because make no mistake, Donovan and the Bulls front office built this roster with big-picture rewards in sight. And while wins are the bottom line, practicing habits that will matter come playoff time is just as important.

That’s why Donovan sounded a bit like a buzzkill when discussing most of the winning streak.

“I just don’t know if we could sustain shooting the basketball at that clip for the rest of the season,” Donovan said of those first seven wins in the streak. “I think it’s probably unsustainable. I didn’t think defensively we were going in the right direction and what happened over a seven, 10-game period we shot the ball at an absolutely unbelievable rate. We’ve got to have the mentality if the ball is not going in the basket we can still defend.”

That’s what Wednesday’s practice was about. Donovan did announce that injured guard Alex Caruso (mid-foot sprain) was now in the protocols, but the focus was getting back to habits that will mean something in April and May.

A simple look at the numbers in the first seven wins of the streak were a reminder of that.

The Bulls went 98-for-208 (45%) from three-point range. No way that had staying power, even with the Bulls taking over the top spot in the Association in three-point field goal percentage at 38.5%

This roster has shown an ability to knock down threes, but come playoff time that isn’t as sustainable.

More concerning for Donovan was the field goal percentage of the opposition. Starting with the Lakers win and going through DeMar DeRozan’s late-game heroics in Washington, the Bulls allowed a field-goal percentage of 48% (295-for-613).

That would put them dead last in the league currently.

Golden State entered Wednesday with the best field-goal percentage allowed at 42.6%.

So while the win over the Magic on Monday looked ugly, Donovan saw the beauty in it. He saw his defense hold Orlando to 42.4% from the field, while the Bulls offense struggled from three (11-for-31) and still got out with the four-point win.

“[If people are saying] ‘If they don’t shoot it well they’re going to have a hard time winning.’ I don’t know if that’s a good recipe for our team,” Donovan said. “If we didn’t defend [against Orlando] and shot it the way we did, we would not have had a chance to win, and that to me was the encouraging part.

“When you win sometimes it masks things and you lose sight and there is slippage in areas and slippage in things we’ve got to get better at.”

The good news was they likely will.

Lonzo Ball missed five of those first seven games in the streak, while Caruso left early in the Houston win (mid-foot sprain) and hadn’t played since.

Ball returned against the Magic, while Caruso is still a wait and see, but will be back sooner than later.

Improvement to the defense will happen with those two.

It has to in Donovan’s world.

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Three people died and another was injured in a wind-whipped house fire in west suburban River Grove Wednesday morning.

The fire began in a garage and spread to the rest of home around 7:30 a.m. in the 2300 block of Grove Street, River Grove Fire Chief Sean Flynn said.

Three family members died inside the home: a 28-year-old woman and a 61-year-old man on the second floor, and a 91-year-old woman on the first, Flynn said.

The bodies were badly burned when firefighters entered the home and found them around 10:30 a.m., Flynn said.

A 56-year-old man who escaped and suffered smoke inhalation was taken to Loyola University Medical Center, where his condition was stabilized.

Firefighters struggled with high wind and frozen hydrants, Flynn said. He said it was one of the deadliest fires in River Grove he could recall.

“I’m in my 27th year in the department… But unfortunately it’s been a long time since we’ve had more than one victim. Normally we don’t get fires like this,” Flynn said.

Last year, 49-year-old Krzysztof Walasek died in a River Grove apartment fire that displaced more than two dozen people.

The state fire marshal was assisting in investigating the cause of Wednesday’s fire.

It was unclear if there was a working smoke detector in the home.

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The Goodman Theatre on Wednesday announced several schedule changes to its 2021-2022 season.

The world premiere and pre-Broadway run of the musical adaptation of “The Outsiders,” based on the S.E. Hinton novel and Francis Ford Coppola movie, has been postponed. A new date has not been announced. In its place will be the Chicago premiere of composer/lyricist Britta Johnson’s new musical “Life After” (June 11-July 17) directed by Annie Tippe.

In addition, artistic director Robert Falls, in his final season at the helm of the Goodman, will direct the world premiere of Rebecca Gilman’s “Swing State,” (April 1-May 1), his sixth time directing one of her works.

The rest of the season’s lineup of plays (with one more to be announced at a later date), is scheduled to continue as originally planned: “Gem of the Ocean” by August Wilson, directed by Chuck Smith (Jan. 22 – Feb. 27); “The Notebooks of Leonardo da Vinci” adapted and directed by Mary Zimmerman (Feb.11 – March 20); and “Good Night, Oscar” by Doug Wright, directed by Lisa Peterson (March 12 – April 17).

Membership tickets are currently available at GoodmanTheatre.org/Homecoming. Individual tickets for will go on sale at a future date.

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One of the few criticisms of the Bulls’ success so far this season is that the level of competition hasn’t been high, that the blood on the tips of their horns has come from weak victims.

The only proper response to that is: What, you’d rather watch the Bears lose football games?

Sometimes I wonder if the local NFL team has taken us hostage and, by virtue of some Stockholm Syndrome voodoo, convinced people that winning isn’t all it’s cracked up to be.

Granted, there’s something perversely fascinating about observing all of the Bears’ various neuroses on display at once. But the Bulls are cruising and — this is the strange part for those of us embedded in the decades-long Bears’ muck — doing things the right way.

They’re 25-10, have the best record in the Eastern Conference and have won eight games in a row.

It’s a timely reminder that winning is good.

The rebuttal to this sunny outlook would be that it’s early January, things don’t start mattering in the NBA for another two or three months and … stop! Don’t you dare snatch the water from our parched tongues! The Blackhawks have lost five straight and have an unsightly goal differential of minus-35. The Sky haven’t won a title since October. Baseball season is months away.

And this can’t be emphasized enough: You do not want the Bears to be your existence.

Let’s take a look at the Bulls’ winning streak. The eight sacrificial lambs were a combined 47 games under .500 when they stepped on the floor to face the Bulls. Much of that was due to the Magic’s 7-30 record when the two teams faced off Monday night. But only two opponents came in with winning records during the streak: the Wizards (18-17) and the Lakers (16-14).

There’s no shame in any of this. The Bulls are beating the teams the schedule has put in front of them. No apologies are necessary, especially this season, when COVID-19 has thrown massive challenges at every team. Two Bulls games were postponed in mid-December because 10 of their players were in the league’s health and safety protocols. The team was without head coach Billy Donovan for five games after he tested positive for the coronavirus. The Bulls managed to wend their way through that maze.

The entertainment value has been ridiculous, with DeMar DeRozan hitting buzzer-beater game winners against the Pacers on Friday and the Wizards on Saturday.

And, yes, the Bulls have taken down some good teams this season. They’ve beaten the Nets twice and the Jazz once. But the truth about the NBA is that there are a lot of middling teams every year, which gets us back to the previously mentioned truth: You can only beat the teams standing in front of you. That’s not the Bulls’ fault.

We’ll get a better idea of how good they are in the next month, when they play the Warriors and the Suns, who have the two best records in the league, respectively, and the defending-champion Bucks. But the first 35 games have shown that DeRozan and Zach LaVine can share the ball and, more to the point, that LaVine is capable of holding the door open for somebody else. That wasn’t a sure thing when the Bulls acquired DeRozan in an August trade.

The hope always was that the ultra-talented LaVine would recognize a good thing when he saw it. DeRozan joined a roster that already included another star, Nikola Vucevic. LaVine saw the light and embraced it. It’s working. The Bulls rank first in the NBA in three-point percentage, second in free-throw percentage and fourth in field-goal percentage. DeRozan has tried to make the mid-range game cool again, a difficult task in a league built on three-point shooting. What’s next, Vucevic bringing back the Sky Hook?

The big man has shown signs of coming out of a shooting slump, but even when he’s not a factor offensively, he’s a monster on the boards. In the last six games, he’s averaged 16 rebounds.

All of this points to good things ahead for the Bulls. Are they the best team in the East? I wouldn’t rule anything out, not in a season in which few teams look dominant.

Bulls vice president Arturas Karnisovas has put together an excellent roster. His approach seems to suggest a belief that having good players leads to a good record, which leads to a good culture. The reverse order doesn’t necessarily work in pro sports. Somebody ought to tell the Bears that. Nice is fine. Winning is better.

Much, much better.

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