Rose out, Butler in against Sixers, describes his ‘process'

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PHILADELPHIA — The Bulls could have a skeleton crew for tonight’s game against the Philadelphia 76ers, as Jimmy Butler didn’t go through shootaround, Pau Gasol didn’t make the trip and Derrick Rose is a out with tendonitis in his left knee.

Rose went through shootaround after tweaking his left knee in Tuesday’s loss in Milwaukee, but said he doesn’t feel 100 percent when pushing off his left leg.

When asked if he was playing after going through a warm-up 90 minutes before gametime, Rose said, “not tonight.”

Butler will play, but his right ankle sprain is something that should be monitored after he sprained it late in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s loss to the Bucks.

The Bulls will play Dallas at home for the final game in their four-in-five stretch back at the United Center on Friday.

“It felt better, but we’ll see how it is before I get back over here,” Rose said in the morning shootaround. “Still didn’t have the explosiveness that I would want, but it’s getting better every day, so that’s the good thing about it. (Tuesday) was the only day that it felt that way, so not worried about it.’’

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Rose said he didn’t feel any added pressure to play with Butler’s status still in the air as of the late morning. After all, it’s the 76ers they’re going against and even a less-than-full squad should be enough to take care of business.

“I believe in my teammates if I’m not ready to play or if I’m not able to go I’m just not going to go,” Rose said. “I wanted to play as many games as I want to, as I can. It’s frustrating of course when you miss games, but can’t get mad at that. It’s the reality. I just got to deal with it and just keep getting recovery, getting the treatment like I’ve been doing.”

Rose missed three games recently with a hamstring injury and has played in 32 of the 38 games so far this season. If that trend holds up, he’s on track to play 69 games (84 percent), the most he’s played since his MVP season in 2011.

In the lockout-shortened 2011-12 season, which culminated in Rose tearing his ACL in Game 1 of the first-round series against the 76ers, Rose played in 39 of the 66 games (59 percent).

He missed all of the next season and 10 games in the 2013-14 season before last year, when he underwent meniscus surgery after the All-Star break before returning right before the playoffs.

He commonly refers to an injury as “the process,” as in with the way his body has gone through so much over the last four years, getting through the season will be viewed as a success.

Then next year, once he knows he can complete a season, he believes he’ll ramp it up another gear from an individual standpoint.

“That’s all a part of the process,” Rose said. “Coming into the season, I was just trying to play as many games as possible. Next year, that’s when I throw in my individual goals and all that, but it’s all about getting a solid season under my belt, playing hard in the playoffs whenever we get there, but along the way just being smart and really taking care of my body, and pushing my teammates to be better.”

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