The mask is off, and Derrick Rose has looked more like himself the past three games. He dropped 19 on the Thunder on Christmas, 25 against the Mavericks in a loss, and 20 on Toronto — and he’s shooting 48.2 percent in those three games (3-of-7 from three). It’s led to the “is Derrick Rose back?” line of questioning. Again.
What is different is that the mask is off, and he feels like his body has caught up with the grind of the NBA season. From Vincent Goodwill of CSNChicago.com.
Rose on playing without the mask: "I really can’t tell the difference. It’s just that I’m getting my legs under me a little bit more."
— Vincent Goodwill (@VinceGoodwill) December 30, 2015
What was more interesting was why he ditched the mask.
Rose gave new reason why he ditched mask: "I got too much Faith to be hiding behind something. So I took it off and put it in God’s hands."
— K.C. Johnson (@KCJHoop) December 30, 2015
Mask or no mask, the real question is can Rose sustain this? He has had stretches of impressive play before, only to take steps back. I need to see this over a longer stretch of ground — at least 10 games — before I start to buy in.
But if Rose finds his groove — and if he and Jimmy Butler can coexist, and if the team can find an offensive identity — it’s not hard to imagine the Bulls breaking out of the pack and being the second best team in the East. They’ve always looked like the second best on paper, but can they start to put all the pieces together? For more than a couple of games?
In an East where it seems every week another team is breaking out — the Hawks won six straight until the Pacers beat them — a few good games from Rose is a hopeful sign for Bulls fans, but not a trend. Yet.
