Rose has torn right meniscus, will need surgery
The Bulls announced today that Derrick Rose has a torn right meniscus and will need surgery. He's expected to be out indefinitely.
Rose left Friday's Portland loss with a right knee injury with 3:30 left in the third quarter and limped to the locker room with assistance. The ACL surgery that caused him to miss all of last season was on his other knee, the left.
"I'm concerned," coach Tom Thibodeau told reporters after the game. "Any time anyone goes down, you're concerned. But I don't want to speculate until we have more information."
The problem occurred when Rose made a backdoor cut to the basket, but a pass from Joakim Noah was stolen and never got to its intended target. As Rose stopped and tried to change direction, his right knee seemed to buckle. He didn't go to the floor, but limped after regaining his balance.
He went straight to the bench with assistant trainer Jeff Tanaka checking the right knee. After a few minutes sitting on the bench in some discomfort, Rose was helped to the locker room. There will be further examination Saturday, obviously, but the scene didn't look good.
"He has pain and thought that he couldn't push off his right knee," Thibodeau said. "Derrick's a hard guy to read. He doesn't show a lot of emotion. I know how much work he put into his rehab, what type of person he is, what type of player he is. I feel for him because of all the things he does for our team."
The Bulls are already playing without starting guard Jimmy Butler because of turf toe. Depth is a huge problem with rookies Tony Snell and Erik Murphy getting little opportunity. But the team's performance on the rest of this six-game circus road trip is minor compared to latest health issue.
The Bulls lost Thursday night at Denver, but put together a strong effort in Friday's first half and took a 59-44 lead into halftime.
During that first half, Rose scored 17 points, while Portland stars LaMarcus Aldridge and Damien Lillard combined to hit 2 of 17 shots.
Rose's injury was the low point of a miserable third quarter. The Bulls turned that 15-point halftime lead into a 7-point deficit in a matter of 12 minutes, getting outscored 34-12.
The third quarter featured a torrent of Bulls' turnovers, 10 in all. Portland tied the score when a bad pass by Luol Deng resulted in a steal and lay in by Wesley Matthews. The Bulls went back ahead with some free throws before Mo Williams knocked down consecutive 3-pointers to put the home team on top.
The Bulls straightened their game in the fourth quarter, even taking a 93-88 lead with 3:16 left after a Hinrich 3-pointer.
But Lillard and Nicholas Batum knocked down 3-pointers to get the Blazers within a point and Matthews' 19-foot- jumper with 1:37 left turned out to be the game-winner.
Trailing by 1, Taj Gibson missed a jumper and Hinrich could hit a 3-pointer. The Bulls got a defensive stop, but this time Hinrich couldn't finish a driving attempt, Nazr Mohammed grabbed the offensive rebound, but they could manage only a quick 3-point attempt by Mike Dunleavy before the shot clock expired.
With the Bulls forced to foul, Aldridge hit 2 free throws to make it a 3-point game and Deng's attempt at a tying 3-pointer hit the front rim. The Blazers (11-2) won their ninth straight game.