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“For me, it’s just finishing the ball, finishing with the wrist at the very end and throwing it like a fastball instead of thinking changeup, which was a hard thing to get out of my head,” Kilian said. “Having a changeup is huge. A lot of hitters think that’s the best pitch in the game, so now that I actually have a decent one, I think it will make all my pitches better.”

“It’s a unique season based off of last year’s season, which was unique off of the 60-game season,” pitching coach Ethan Katz said Sunday. “Injuries are to be expected. Obviously you don’t want to deal with them or have them definitely impact the first game of the season, but our player development staff has done a great job getting guys ready to help us up here.”

Lack of size has been an obstacle for the Bulls all season, but they got by with smaller, quicker lineups when Ball was healthy. The Bulls finished 28th in rebounding (42.3 per game), while the Bucks were second (46.7). Having Brook Lopez back creates an even greater size disparity, so Donovan might have to pair Vučević and Thompson together, which doesn’t bode well for a team that’s better when the offense is in a flow instead of bogged down by two bigs.

Los Angeles wildly underachieved this season, finishing 33-49 and missing the 10-team Western Conference playoffs in a humiliating conclusion to a year that began with LeBron James, Anthony Davis, Russell Westbrook, Carmelo Anthony and a veteran-laden supporting cast widely expected to contend for another championship.

“Times change too. Listen, nobody likes get hit, right? So whether you did it on the first pitch or the last pitch, I don’t know that it ever feels good or everybody’s happy with it. I’m sure he has a take on it maybe, or maybe sometimes quotes that you read can be misleading, for me at least. So I don’t know what’s inside his brain. But, yeah, I’m sure he was upset about it.”