According to Fred Hoiberg, Jimmy Butler has "significant soreness" in his right heel, Nikola Mirotic has "pretty serious" back spasms and Paul Zipser might’ve eaten some bad walleye.
OK, so that last part represented some gallows humor from Hoiberg. Zipser, who has gastrointestinal illness, would’ve sat Sunday anyway with left ankle tendinitis.
But what else is Hoiberg supposed to do when he loses four rotation players, including Dwyane Wade?
Wade’s sore right wrist worsened enough to warrant X-rays, which were negative Sunday, and a possible MRI on Monday.
"Can’t even bend it," Wade said, adding his hand hurts too.
As for Butler, both he and Hoiberg insist shutting Butler down until the All-Star break isn’t necessary for now.
"He’s comfortable that if he sits these next two days, he’ll feel significantly better," Hoiberg said.
Any regrets about playing Butler on Friday?
"He said he was ready to go," Hoiberg said. "We talked to the medical guys. They were comfortable with him playing."
Photos of Dwyane Wade, who signed with the Bulls after a 13-year run with the Heat.
Social statement: Timberwolves coach Tom Thibodeau made light of his social media ignorance when asked for his impressions of a blistering Instagram post by Rajon Rondo, whom Thibodeau coached in Boston.
"I have no idea what you’re talking about," he said.
Thibodeau, who surely was made aware of the post calling out Wade and Butler, always has praised Rondo.
"He’s unique. He’s got a great mind," he said. "At that time, I thought he was fantastic with our team. We had a lot of personalities on our team and it was positive. We probably wouldn’t have won a championship without that personality. He was terrific at getting everyone the ball. At that time, he played great defense. He was hungry to get established and to win, so it was all positive."
How would Thibodeau feel if one of his players called out teammates on social media?
"It’s a different day today," he said. "The way you deal with that is, you have to have everyone try to have an understanding of how it impacts the team. And the team has to come first. No one’s perfect. We all make mistakes. I think you have to guard against things sometimes. But I look back at Rajon and I enjoyed my time with him.
"The public part is maybe not the best way to do it, but being truthful is the only way you can build trust. He’s always had great leadership ability."
Painful path: Thibodeau coached the Bulls when Derrick Rose suffered a torn ACL. But downplayed the notion that he now has words of wisdom for budding Timberwolves force Zach LaVine, who suffered the same injury Feb. 3.
"Every situation’s different," Thibodeau said. "He’s a really tough guy mentally and I think he has a great understanding of how he wants to approach it and how he wants to work. There’s a lot for him to gain."
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