Rose to play in opener; Bulls to watch minutes
CHICAGO — Derrick Rose will play in the Chicago Bulls‘ regular-season opener against the Cleveland Cavaliers on Tuesday as he continues to make his way back from a fractured left orbital.
Rose, who was injured during the Bulls’ first training camp practice Sept. 29, saw his first action of the preseason on Friday. He scored eight points in 10 minutes in a win over the Dallas Mavericks.
After completing all of Sunday’s practice, Bulls coach Fred Hoiberg sounded pleased about the way Rose’s rehab is coming along.
“He was good,” Hoiberg said. “He went through every rep in practice today. So I was really pleased with that. He’s getting his wind up a little bit. Obviously he was very gassed about his five-minute stretch [Friday] … but he feels good.”
Hoiberg was non-committal as to how many minutes Rose, who is wearing a protective mask, will play in Tuesday’s opener.
“Hard to say,” Hoiberg said. “I’m sure his adrenaline will get going a little bit and we’ll make that determination. I don’t know if he’s going to have a restriction on how many minutes [he’ll play]. We play three [games] in four days to start this thing off, so we’ll have to be a little bit careful with him just because he hasn’t had a ton of reps out there.
“So I don’t know exactly how many minutes he’ll play on opening night, but it will be good to have him out there.”
It also remains unclear if Rose will be in the starting lineup.
“We’ll see,” Hoiberg said. “We’ll make that determination. We’ve got a few days. We played him with the starting group, with the second group today a little bit. So we’ll make that call here soon.”
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