Chicago Bulls' Rose sprains ankle, says he'll be fine
Look on the bright side, Chicago Bulls fans: Ten games into a new season, Derrick Rose has yet to experience any knee problems.
He had the fractured orbital bone on the first day of training camp, and Monday night against Indiana he was knocked from the game with a left-ankle sprain.
But the Bulls hung on to defeat the Pacers 96-95 at the United Center, thanks to Jimmy Butler's block of a Paul George potential game-winner.
The Bulls move on to the annual circus road trip, which begins Wednesday in Phoenix, and Rose thinks it's possible he will be back on the floor.
"Of course my ankle's a little bit sore, but I'm just happy nothing's not tore or broken, so I'll be all right," Rose said in the locker room. "I don't think I'm going to need a walking boot. I think I should be fine.
"I'm used to twisting my ankles. When I was younger, that's the one injury I always had. Right now, I'm able to walk on it. That's a good thing. It's just an ankle injury, nothing big and I should be back out there."
Before the injury, Rose was having one of his better games this season. He finished with 23 points and 6 assists, hitting 9 of 18 shots from the field.
Rose said his blurry vision from the orbital-bone injury hasn't changed. But he had been 1-for-18 on the season from 3-point land and went 2-for-2 in Monday's game. So maybe he's getting a clearer view of the rim.
"He was great," Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg said. "His tempo and his shot were really good. He has been putting his work in, not only in practice, but coming in late to work on his shot. You could tell that first 3 was going in as soon as it left his hands."
This was another one of those games when the Bulls' offense ground to a halt when the defense stepped up in the fourth quarter. The Bulls led 88-80 when Rose knocked down his second 3-pointer of the night with 8:59 remaining.
A few minutes later, Rose drove into the lane and appeared to turn his left ankle in traffic. The crowd groaned as Rose took a few painful steps, but he stepped to the foul line, made 1 of 2 free throws and stayed in the game.
Rose checked out at the 5:52 mark of the fourth quarter, though, replaced by Kirk Hinrich. Rose sat on the bench briefly, retreated to the locker room and didn't return.
"I trust and believe in my teammates, when things get hot like that," Rose said. "We believe in one another when my decision to come out, I felt like I couldn't go out there and I knew they could finish the game."
After Rose's 3-pointer, the Bulls missed their next 13 field-goal attempts until a Butler 15-footer put the Bulls ahead 96-93 with 1:24 left. A hanging, driving lay-in by Monta Ellis brought Indiana within 1 with 46 seconds left.
After a Butler miss, the Pacers had the ball out of bounds in the corner with 5.1 seconds on the clock. They went to Paul George, who drove into the lane but had his 13-foot fallaway blocked by Butler, who was playing with 5 fouls.
Indiana's bench was livid as the rebound bounced around and time expired. But the replay seemed to show a pretty clear view - Butler skied to make an impressive block.
George finished with a game-high 26 points. Butler had 17 and Ellis scored 20.
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