Derrick Rose left Tuesday night’s game in Denver after playing just 10 minutes with what the team said was hamstring tightness.
But it doesn’t appear as though he suffered a new injury.
It was the second night of a back-to-back set, and Rose told his coach he wasn’t feeling like he could impact the game the way he wanted, so a joint decision was made to sit him for the rest of the contest.
From Nick Friedell of ESPN Chicago:“It wasn’t nothing like I’m limping or I pulled it or anything, it wasn’t any of that,” Rose said. “It was just that I wasn’t moving the way I wanted to while I was on the floor. So why push through it when I wasn’t able to affect the game the way I wanted to? I came in here and talked to (Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau) and we both agreed on just sitting out.” ...
“They’ll re-examine him but there was really nothing that happened other than I didn’t want to take any chances with him,” Thibodeau said. “The way the game was going, the way we were going, I just felt at that point I wanted to go a different way. He didn’t re-injure himself or anything like that.”
It’s worth continuing to point out that this Bulls team would make the playoffs even if Rose keeps missing games, so the patient, cautious approach is the correct one, despite frustration with the star’s injury situation reaching an all-time high.
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Rose has missed eight of his team’s 15 games this season -- four due to the hamstring, and four because of sprained ankles. These are not serious, career-threatening ailments like the knee injuries that Rose has suffered in the past, so there’s not a sense of worry or panic that he won’t be back to 100 percent by the time the games truly matter much later in the season.
