Coach Thibodeau frustrated with loss to Pistons on Friday night…
Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose has revealed that he apologised to his team-mates after missing practice on Wednesday due to ‘travel issues’.
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Rose scored just eight points on 2-for-9 shooting from the field on Friday night as the Bulls lost 100-91 to the Detroit Pistons and he produced one of his worst performances so far this season.
The 26-year-old was clearly lacking rhythm in his play after a week off due to the All-Star break, and he revealed after the game that he had apologised to his teammates at some point over the last two days after missing an important practice session with them earlier this week.
“Being one of the leaders, for anyone to miss, I wouldn’t want it to be me,” Rose was quoted by ESPN.
“It hurt. I apologized to the guys and that was it.”
However, the former MVP would have risked angering fans with his next comment after insisting that he didn’t understand why people would be so critical of his practice absence.
“Not at all,” Rose said.
“We’re over .500, we got another game tomorrow, so we got to put this performance behind (us).”
Coach Tom Thibodeau was clearly not amused by the situation, and although he insisted that the organisation would deal with it internally, he reiterated that as a leader of the team, it’s not something that Rose can afford to do.
Thibodeau added that Rose was asking for criticism when things like that happen, but he also insisted that he wanted more intensity and edge from the entire team as they slumped to a disappointing loss to the Pistons who are struggling to even make the playoffs this year.
Nevertheless, the Bulls coach also protected his player from further scrutiny by admitting that his point guard had a lot going on, but he remains pleased with how his game was developing prior to the break in a period during which Rose played his best basketball of the season.
While Rose conceded that he just felt it was right to reveal the situation publicly, teammate Joakim Noah defended him from criticism and insisted that “when s— hits the fan, he’ll be ready”.
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