CHICAGO — In his second official game back since suffering a torn left ACL during the 2012 playoffs, Derrick Rose didn’t just show some rust Thursday night against the Knicks. Think more in terms of layers.
And layers.
“I was missing shots the whole night,” Rose said. “I’m not going to continue missing shots. … I work too hard.”
So Rose, whose availability had been somewhat put in question by Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, had the ball when it mattered most. His endgame had been little short of disastrous: two turnovers and a key miss in the final 88 seconds. But then Rose, with Chicago down one, got past Raymond Felton and hoisted an 11-foot floater over the reach of Tyson Chandler.
“He had the courage to take and make the last play,” Thibodeau said.
The key word, of course, was “make.”
Rose’s floater, unlike 16 of 22 shots that preceded it by the 2010-11 MVP, came after some “quick amnesia,” Rose said, and it settled through the rim at the 5.7-second mark. The Bulls then made a final defensive stand as Carmelo Anthony missed a 24-footer, and embraced an
82-81 victory over the Knicks at United Center.
“Down by a point, we put the ball in [his] hands and he did it again,”
Bulls teammate Carlos Boozer said. “It was awesome. I’m super proud of him.”
Rose, who sat all of last season, sustained a neck injury in Chicago’s season-opening loss at Miami Tuesday. Rose, hearing “MVP” chants during the home opener introductions, shot 7-of-23 and scored 18 points against the Knicks. Rose claimed he had no recollection of when the injury occurred, but he was aware of it Thursday night, despite some Kinesio tape (medical therapeutic stuff, OK?) on his neck.
“It’s still there,” Rose said, “but with the tape I had on it during the game, it loosened up a bit.”
No doubt Rose was completely unaware of what he labeled a “crick in the neck” on the game’s biggest play. Sure, he had missed a boatload of shots — including a drive at 1:11 with the score tied. That miss was sandwiched by turnovers — getting stripped by Iman Shumpert at
1:28 with the score tied and at :36, again in a tie game, throwing the ball again.
That last of his four overall turnovers was in his thoughts — not neck pain — when he went for the kill.
“Thibs put the ball in my hands for a reason. But there was a play before that where I passed the ball and I shouldn’t have passed it,”
Rose said. “It was a learning experience. … When I have the ball again I’ve got to do something right with it.”
Like score the game-winner.
For now, after a year off, he’s just psyched to be competing.
“It was good. It’s just playing again,” Rose said. “My body is getting used to [being back]. For me, all I can do is work my butt off every day.
“It’s going to be scary when normal shots are falling.”
Before the game, Thibodeau was more evasive than someone summoned before a Congressional hearing as he discussed Rose’s availability. He said only that his star point guard was “a little bit nicked” and when asked where, replied “his body.”
Rose himself crushed any doubt, noting though “my neck is a little bit sore” but “hell yeah, for sure I know I am going to play” against the Knicks.
He did. And when a wild, back-and-forth endgame finished, the Knicks certainly wished he hadn’t.