A Confident Derrick Rose Can Win More Believers in Game 2 vs. Cavs
CLEVELAND — Confidence is an essential attribute for an elite athlete and, even if such self-assurance can seem a skewed version of reality, even if it can sometimes border on delusion, it's always better to have a surplus than a deficiency. So it seems silly to scoff at the way that Derrick Rose chose to answer my question on the off-day before Wednesday's Game 2 of the Bulls' second-round series.
How close is his game to where it was in 2011, the last time he took the floor against a LeBron James team in the playoffs, an Eastern Conference finals in which the Bulls struck first and dropped the next four?
"My game is nowhere near the same as when I played back three or four years ago," Rose said. "I think I'm better, I think I'm smarter. I think my IQ of the game got higher. And like I said, I don't need to score big to win. And I think that's huge for our team."
What else is huge? If he wants to prove to the rest of us that he's really better?
This next game.
Wednesday night.
For himself. For his team—and yes, the Bulls appear to be becoming his team again, especially as Joakim Noah appears too battered and broken to continue to carry the emotional torch.
Wednesday night represents another milestone for Rose, an opportunity for him to take the next step in his recovery—and it is still a recovery—back to undisputed NBA star status.
Because, while it is something for Rose to score 25 points in the series opener, after he averaged 22.7 against Cleveland in three regular-season games, it is something else for him, in his inconsistent post-surgeries incarnation, to string together strong games. He had three three-game stretches this season in which he scored at least 20, and four two-game stretches. But in the first round against Milwaukee, he followed 23- and 34-point outings with an inefficient 15 and 14, respectively.
And while it is something to play with the energy and explosion that he did Monday, following three full days of rest, it is another to do so with one day's rest. Rose was decent on one day's rest this regular season, averaging 18.8 points on 40 percent from the field in 25 games. But he was better still, from an efficiency standpoint, in the 15 games after two or more days' rest, averaging 18.4 points on 45.8 percent. He was a plus-31 in 36 games on less than two days' rest and a plus-159 in 15 games on two days' rest or more.
Rose won't encounter any back-to-backs in the postseason but the next five games of this series, should it go that far, will come after single days off.
So it will be an issue until Rose proves it's not.
How will he respond?
"Who knows?" Rose said. "That's the great thing about the playoffs. If I'm not scoring or I'm having a bad game, you've got to figure things out. I can't go into the game or have that thought in my mind. Only think about good thoughts, and having a lot of confidence in my game."
His coach and greatest champion, Tom Thibodeau, warned not to read much into any statistical trends.
"No, I think he's still working his way back," Thibodeau said. "I think if you look at most players, you would find that to be true also. You want to compare apples to apples."
There likely are bushels of NBA players who struggle more with shorter rest, but it's hard to find them on these two rosters. James had better numbers with no days off than with one day off. Kyrie Irving's highest scoring average came on the second day of back-to-backs. Pau Gasol's points average and shooting percentage were better with less than two days' rest than with two or more.
NBA minutes leader Jimmy Butler stands out as an exception on the Bulls and Cavs, though that shouldn't be especially surprising in light of his two-way burden: He averaged 18.5 points on 45.4 percent shooting on less than two days' rest and 23.1 points on 47.8 percent shooting after two days or more.
Butler, though, hasn't had Rose's history of injuries.
So he isn't watched as carefully.
As skeptically.
Thibodeau pointed to Rose's run at the end of the regular season, when he played five games in eight nights after missing six weeks due to knee surgery. But he averaged only 20 minutes in those games, not the 39 he played on Monday.
"I think the Milwaukee series helped him," Thibodeau said. "I think he's in a good place right now. All we want him to do is concentrate on his improvement, run the team well. [Monday] night, I thought he did a great job trusting the pass and making plays."
So, can we trust Rose when he says he's ready for this, ready for more, ready to return to prominence?
There's certainly no cause to question his competitiveness, not now. He spoke late Monday of not looking at basketball like a sport anymore, but "as like art"—art that requires him to take creative approaches to the maintenance of his body, whether through the NormaTec recovery system or the combination of hot and cold treatment. He had a scare in the final minute of Game 1, when he suffered a shoulder stinger for the first time in his career, but he came out of that fine, with no soreness Tuesday and no concern for Wednesday.
His knees? He hasn't complained about that of late. Nor has he resisted any increase in his role, even as he's acknowledged that he need not score so much, because his supporting cast is offensively superior to what it was, even in the 62-win season of 2010-11.
That starts with Butler, who led the Bulls in regular-season scoring (20.0) and matched that Monday, and Rose's pick-and-pop partner, Gasol, who had 21, connecting on several open jumpers.
"He's huge," Rose said, using that word again. "He's huge for our group and our bigs. We have young bigs, I wouldn't say that young, but guys that aren't as experienced as he is right now. And he makes their job a little bit easier, because he is always talking to them, telling them where to be on the court.
"And I think he eases their mind a little bit whenever he's out there. Because he's a load, he's always talking and he's a hell of a player."
Gasol has been impressed with Rose, too.
When asked Tuesday to compare Rose with his former teammate, Kobe Bryant, Gasol said he could think of some similarities.
"Derrick also has a desire to be great," Gasol said. "Different paths. Derrick had to deal with injuries, and doubts, early in his career, after having an MVP type of year. But you see resemblances of how resilient Derrick is also, and how resilient he had to be to be back at this level. And Kobe is the most resilient competitor that you will probably ever see."
Before—and after—Gasol signed, was he ever concerned that he would never get to play with the real Rose, the Rose that looks something like what we saw Monday?
"There's those things that might cross your mind at times, especially when he went out with the (torn) meniscus," Gasol said. "It was a tough moment. Because you just don't know. And mentally for him, it's also difficult, right?
"But at the same time, those are things that I can't control as a player. I made my decision based on a lot of things. With the potential of this team, the talent of this team. And obviously Derrick's presence was a big factor. But anybody can have an injury, no matter what your history is. Hopefully things click at the right time. Right now, they are looking good."
Rose is sounding good, sounding like someone who has started to feel like his old self, anxious to prove he still belongs among the elite at the NBA's premier position—as an Olympian, an All-Star and everything else. Actually, he believes he's better. He has a ways to go to convince most, but he'll have a much better case to make if Wednesday goes anywhere near as well as Monday did.
Ethan Skolnick covers the NBA for Bleacher Report and is a co-host of NBA Sunday Tip, 9-11 a.m. ET on SiriusXM Bleacher Report Radio. Follow him on Twitter, @EthanJSkolnick.
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