Bulls' Derrick Rose Continues To Deal With Soreness In Elbow
By Cody Westerlund--
CHICAGO (CBS) -- With soreness and swelling in his left elbow, Bulls point guard Derrick Rose remains doubtful for Saturday night's tilt against the Pistons that carries crucial playoff implications.
Rose was a partial participant in the morning shootaround, sporting a heavily padded sleeve on his left arm. The trouble stems from swelling in the bursa sac, coach Fred Hoiberg said, causing pain and making it difficult to extend his arm. Rose sat out the second half of Thursday's win at Houston with the injury after he was rendered ineffective in the first half while using only his right arm to dribble and pass.
"It's just how effective can he be out there just playing with one arm," Hoiberg said. "That's been the dilemma the last couple of games. He wanted to try to keep going the other night, but he just didn't have much effectiveness without being able to use his left hand, which is really his dominant hand when he's driving the ball and finishing around the basket. So it's tough with Derrick out with that type of situation. Again, we'll just continue to give him treatments to get the swelling out of there and get him back as quickly as possible."
Rose will get more treatment throughout the day before the Bulls decide on his status in the evening.
Rose isn't the only Bull likely to be missing. Forward Taj Gibson returned home to New York to tend to a personal matter. There was some hope that he could be back in Chicago in time for the game, but even if he is, he's dealing with a rib fracture that has already caused him to be listed as doubtful.
"He didn't get the opportunity to go out there and run around and do a lot of things just physically to test if he would be ready," Hoiberg said. "So once he does make it back, we'll test him out and see how he's doing."
Bobby Portis or Nikola Mirotic will start in Gibson's place if the latter can't go, Hoiberg said.
The Bulls (38-37) sit in ninth place in the East, a game back of the eighth-place Pacers (39-36) and 1.5 games back of the seventh-place Pistons (40-36). A Chicago victory against Detroit would even the season series at 2-2 and give the Bulls the inside track to nabbing the playoff tiebreaker based on divisional record.