Zach LaVine continues eyeing full contact in practices in two weeks

TORONTO — There’s still some uncertainty surrounding guard Zach LaVine’s rehab schedule, but at least there’s progress.

Coach Fred Hoiberg said Tuesday that LaVine continued getting extra work after the morning shootaround. As long as there are no setbacks with his surgically repaired anterior cruciate ligament, he could start taking contact during the West Coast trip in two weeks.

“He had a really good workout after the shootaround, and he stayed 45 minutes [after the team left],’’ Hoiberg said. “He feels great. He’s been going through all of our 5-on-0 stuff, has been doing everything in practice with the exception of contact. That’s the last hurdle. We’ll need a good couple of weeks to get him ready.’’

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There was no word on whether he’d see some action in the G  League, with Hoiberg reiterating that caution is being stressed.

“We’ll still take things slow,’’ Hoiberg said. “We won’t throw him out for an hour scrimmage the first day he gets cleared for contact. It will be a gradual process. But he’s doing great, doing everything he’s supposed to do.’’

And LaVine hasn’t lost his impressive leaping ability. He jumped effortlessly and threw down a nasty one-handed slam as he headed for a pre-practice huddle.

“All that’s the same,’’ LaVine said recently. “I can still jump, I can still get up, take contact through the hoop. I’m getting ready to be used to that again. I’m going to come back, play the same way. If I could go out there and play right now, I would try it. That’s just me.’’

But it will be more practice, film work and solo workouts until that trip Thanksgiving week.

“It’s been a lot of hard work,’’ LaVine said. “I’ve been in the gym every day. I’ve been pushing as much as possible, trying to get my body right, trying to get my legs under me. I’ve still got a little ways to go. I see some places that I need to get better at. I’m going to just keep pushing it.’’

Social-media free

Power forward Bobby Portis mentioned that punching teammate Nikola Mirotic had changed several aspects of his life, including staying away from his social-media accounts as much as possible.

“Have I looked at [my Twitter account]? Nah, I tried to stay off it,’’ Portis said.

“Just too much going on. I had a lot of mentions. I had to turn my mentions off. It was going crazy. I turned it off and haven’t looked at it. Probably got 30,000 tweets, people going at me, but at the same time, I got to see both sides of it.’’

Portis served an eight-game suspension because of the altercation, starting the season away from the team on game nights.

He returned Tuesday and led the Bulls with 21 points.

Follow me on Twitter @suntimes_hoops.

Email: jcowley@suntimes.com