CHICAGO – Chicago Bulls All-Star point guard Derrick Rose has a sprained right ankle and is a game-time decision Tuesday night against the New York Knicks.
-
By Mary Altaffer, AP
Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose, right, came back for one game, Sunday vs. Iman Shumpert, left, and the New York Knicks, but could be out again with an injury.
By Mary Altaffer, AP
Chicago Bulls guard Derrick Rose, right, came back for one game, Sunday vs. Iman Shumpert, left, and the New York Knicks, but could be out again with an injury.
The reigning MVP and three-time All-Star was hurt in the second quarter of Sunday's overtime loss to the Knicks.
"You know how I am. If it's a close game or one I want to get, I'm going to continue to play. I ended up making it worse," Rose told reporters at Tuesday's shootaround.
He later added, "It's just an ankle sprain. Hopefully, I'll be over it in a couple days."
Chicago executive vice president of basketball operations John Paxson told Bulls flagship radio station WMVP that "we're not going to risk anything with him."
That has been the Bulls' plan with their superstar all season.
Rose has been bothered by various injuries — a sprained big left toe, sore back, strained right groin — and now the ankle. He has played in just 35 of the Bulls' 57 games.
He missed 12 consecutive games with a serious groin injury that included bleeding and had just returned Sunday against the Knicks. After a slow start, Rose finished with 29 points, six rebounds, four assists, one steal and one block. But he also had eight turnovers and missed two free throws at the end of regulation that could have sealed a Bulls' victory.
The Bulls have a league-best 43-14 record and are 15-7 without Rose this season, using C.J. Watson and cult-hero John Lucas III at point guard.
However, the Miami Heat are just two games behind Chicago in the Eastern Conference standings and have an interesting schedule. Six of Miami's final 11 games are at home, and six are against teams with winning records, including the Bulls and Boston Celtics twice each.
Rose missed only one game last season when the Bulls finished the regular season with the league's best record (62-20). He played in all but one game his rookie 2008-09 season and all but four the next.
His achievements, and the Bulls' workmanlike efforts behind reserve guards Watson, Lucas III and the rest of the self-proclaimed "Bench Mob", have drawn even the attention of The Wall Street Journal.
As guard Ronnie Brewer told The Journal, "We're kind of boring. We're a quiet, lunch-pail kind of group that doesn't warrant a lot of attention."
He's being modest. The Bulls' bench ranks sixth in scoring on the season but third in the past 10 games, according to hoopsstats.com.
But sooner or later, the Bulls will need Rose in the lineup for an extended period. The playoffs begin April 28.
For more information about
reprints & permissions, visit our FAQ's. To report corrections and clarifications, contact Standards Editor
Brent Jones. For publication consideration in the newspaper, send comments to
letters@usatoday.com. Include name, phone number, city and state for verification. To view our corrections, go to
corrections.usatoday.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment