An hour before the Sixers played the Bulls on Monday night, Chicago center Nikola Vucevic, clad in black sweats, headed to the court in the Wells Fargo Center to test what had been described by coach Billy Donovan as a balky calf muscle.
Vucevic, the leading remaining scorer on a team that had shed Zach LaVine at the trade deadline, tried a few left-handed hooks from the right block, then the left. He went around the horn while shooting mid-range jumpers, then three-pointers.
Finally he huddled with the trainers, and when game time rolled around, he was in street clothes.