Bulls' Derrick Rose says his shoulder is fine
Oh, what the heck, how about a tiny bit more drama from Derrick Rose?
It wasn't enough that the Bulls held off repeated Cavaliers charges for a 99-92 victory Monday night.
At about 8:30 p.m. in Chicago and the final minute of the fourth quarter in Cleveland, clocks stopped and trains screeched and babies cried.
Rose had to, just had to, put another scare into anyone associated with the Bulls.
Fighting through a screen, Rose turned awkwardly before suddenly grabbing his right shoulder as if something was out of wack.
Not this again, Bulls fans had to be thinking. Not another Rose injury, albeit to his upper body this time instead of his knees.
Exhale, folks.
“It was a stinger,” Rose said. “It's the first time I've had one. I felt my nerves tingling. It went away after 5-10 minutes. Hopefully it'll be all right.”
Before you knew it, Rose was at the Bulls' bench lifting a towel up to his head and flexing his fingers and giving Pau Gasol a fist bump up high.
The Bulls finally could celebrate their 1-0 lead in a best-of-seven NBA Eastern Conference semifinal series.
“It's the start,” Bulls head coach Tom Thibodeau said. “You can't get wrapped up in (the victory). We're going to have to come out and play a lot better the next game. It's a battle.”
All the Bulls accomplished was to win a game they had to win and should have won.
The Cavaliers played without injured forward Kevin Love — one of their Big Three along with LeBron James and Kyrie Irving. Love is out for the season and J.R. Smith was suspended for the series' first two games.
If both teams were at full strength, this would be an even series. With Cleveland missing Love and Smith the Bulls should beat the Cavs, shouldn't they?
“You can never let your guard down,” Thibodeau said. “(The Cavaliers) put a lot of pressure on you.”
Look, if the Bulls didn't win at least one of these first two games in Cleveland, they would have squandered a terrific opportunity.
Now that the Bulls have a victory, it's in their best interest to get greedy, win Wednesday night and return to Chicago up 2-0 in the series.
The season began with these two teams expected to meet in the playoffs if they survived the season intact.
The Bulls are in about as good a shape as at any time even as Thibodeau insists, “I don't know if we're healthy … we're still laboring through a lot of stuff.”
At least all the Bulls are available. Without Love and Smith, the Cavaliers are searching for answers.
“For us,” Cavs head coach David Blatt said, “not having our normal rotation and normal roster, we have to adjust. Our margin for error is smaller.”
Cleveland's adjustments didn't work in Game 1. The Cavaliers fell behind by 16 points early, rallied to tie, fell behind by 15, rallied again, kept closing gaps but without ever taking the lead.
The Bulls had just enough offense to maintain control with Rose scoring 25 points, Pau Gasol 21 and Jimmy Butler 20.
Questions remain for the Bulls, as usual the biggest centering on Rose's physical condition, which is a work in progress after his latest knee surgery.
Rose plays better on multiple days off but will have only one before Game 2.
At least his shoulder appears well enough for clocks to start, trains to run and babies to relax.
Beware though: This being Derrick Rose, more drama likely is on the way.
mimrem@dailyherald.com