NBA Playoffs 2012: Healthy Derrick Rose Makes Chicago Bulls Team to Beat

With only two games remaining in the 2012 regular season, the Chicago Bulls have successfully built off their success for a season ago and have impressively managed to do it without the services of reigning league MVP Derrick Rose for around one-third of the long journey.

Chicago needs one win in their final two games to secure home-court advantage throughout the Eastern Conference playoffs, and that's huge for the Bulls, considering the fact that they are an impressive 25-7 on the season playing in the comforts of the United Center.

Yet, Tom Thiboduea's team has overcome all of the injuries and are getting healthy at the right time.

Having Rose healthy should cement the Bulls as the team to beat in the postseason.

Chicago can certainly get the job done on the defensive end of the floor, allowing an NBA best 88.4 PPG on the season. 

Offensively though, the Bulls have had room for improvement, and with Rose back healthy that should make them scary.

According to the Elias Sports Bureau (via ESPN Chicago), the Bulls have won 28 consecutive games when scoring 100 points or more—the longest streak in the league. Yet they've hit that mark only on two different occasions this month and are barely averaging 91 points per game throughout the month of April.

Most of that was done without Rose healthy as he's played in only four of 11 games during the month.

Adding 22.2 PPG and 7.9 APG to the lineup on a consistent basis will go a long way to making the Bulls the team to beat.

Also think about how very few games that Chicago's five starters have actually played together on the season. Rose alone has missed 26 games with five different ailments and shooting guard Richard Hamilton has also missed 38 games.

With both Rose and Hamilton in the lineup, the shots should be there for everyone, it's just a matter of knocking them down.

Rose seemed rusty in his return to the lineup Saturday against Dallas, but with two more games to get under his belt before the start of the postseason, the Bulls offense has the chance to start clicking on all cylinders for the first time in a while.

Hamilton for one, agrees that Rose's presence alone will make the Bulls very dangerous in the postseason, despite the rust, telling ESPNChicago.com's Nick Friedell:

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"He was great," Bulls' guard Rip Hamilton said. "The one thing I told him before the game, I said, 'your presence is going to make a big difference in everything we do.' I felt as though it was tonight. Just him being out on the floor, regardless if he was scoring, passing or whatever, just his presence made a big difference for us."

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After failing to reach the NBA Finals a season ago, the Bulls find themselves in the same position they were a year ago, where the road to the finals goes through Chicago.

With not only a motivated team, but a healthy one as well, the return of Rose to the lineup should make the Bulls the team to beat this year for a championship.