Rose draws media spotlight

Two starters skipped Wednesday's Bulls practice with nagging injuries, which are not expected to keep them out of Friday's game at Boston.

Rookie Derrick Rose suffered a thigh bruise early in Tuesday's win over Milwaukee, while Tyrus Thomas gave his sore ankle a rest.

Rose may need a different kind of break after all the attention he's received. His locker was swarmed by the media before and after Tuesday's game. He also appeared on ESPN's SportsCenter on Wednesday morning, then he did his second sit-down interview with a local television station in three days.

"We want him to focus on what he needs to get done," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "His time is valuable. His most important thing is to be prepared going into games and have good practices."

Rose is quiet by mature, but he's handled the attention that comes with playing in his hometown very well.

"Yeah, but it's early in the season," Del Negro said. "We just started. It's a long season and most rookies hit the wall, so we're going to try to protect him from that. But eventually it will happen and we'll have to - try to give him as much space as we can."

Seeing a better game: After producing 11 points, 9 assists, 3 steals and 4 turnovers in his official pro debut, Derrick Rose gave his performance a C, since he thought there were too many turnovers.

"Derrick's one of those guys, he almost had a double-double and he rated his performance a C," teammate Kirk Hinrich said. "I'm sure he has high expectations for himself. Obviously, the whole city and the league does as well. I think he played great. I think to handle that type of situation, I think he did a great job."