March 31--Derrick Rose played through a badly bruised left elbow Tuesday night to play in his 62nd game. That's one more than in his previous three seasons combined.
Though he has drawn criticism in some circles, Rose's strategy for whether to play through pain or not should be crystal clear by now.
If he has knee soreness or soreness in, say, a hamstring that could lead to issues for knees that have been repaired surgically three times, he sits. If he doesn't, Rose tries to play.
He did so again against the Pacers, just as he did when he answered the bell for the season opener despite missing three weeks of training camp for surgery to repair a left orbital fracture.
Rose, who is listed as probable for Thursday's game in Houston, rarely used his left hand against the Pacers and labored to dress afterward with the ailing elbow.
"Just trying to give the team all that I had, even though I couldn't go left and I'm basically a left-handed driver," Rose said. "I just tried to play through it."
Besides Rose, E'Twaun Moore is listed as probable with his hamstring issue and Taj Gibson is questionable with a rib contusion.
Leading man: Stiff back or not, Jimmy Butler, who isn't on the injury report, moves from drawing Paul George on Tuesday in Indianapolis to James Harden on Thursday in Houston.
"It has been like that for me all my career. I'll be all right. I look forward to it," Butler said, before moving into his plan. "Same thing you try to do against a guy like Paul George, LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony. They're prime-time players. Obviously, they can score extremely well. Just try to get in their way. Challenge every shot. Don't hack. Don't foul like I've been doing. But I'll be all right."
Close calls: Here's a surprising statistic for a team that has struggled to overcome adversity: Tuesday's victory improved the Bulls to 8-4 in games decided by three points or less. Three of those victories have come against the Pacers by a combined total of five points.
"We played with a different mentality," Nikola Mirotic said. "After we had our (team) meeting (Sunday), we changed a little bit our mentality. Even when we lost (Monday's) game against Atlanta, we played better. We competed. And (Tuesday) we did a helluva job on defense. That's the way we should play the rest of the regular season."
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