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Chicago Bulls playoffs injury report: Derrick Rose, Joakim Noah say they're ready for game one

By your friendly BullsBlogger
Dennis Wierzbicki-USA TODAY Sports

The good news is that, for once, a Bulls team is going into the playoffs without a significant injury to where we know they'll be out.

But they are still going in a bit banged-up. Can we trust the Bulls, players or coach or Org., on these issues? Oh god, no. But for what it's worth, here's what's been said.

Derrick Rose

Rose sat out the second half of the season finale with knee soreness. Here's KC Johnson's report:

The soreness is in the knee in which Rose tore his ACL during the 2012 playoffs, not the right one that underwent arthroscopic surgery to repair a torn meniscus in February. Rose said it felt similar to tightness he experienced twice with USA Basketball last summer. He added he chose to sit out the second half, which disputed what coach Tom Thibodeau said.

"It's nothing serious at all," Rose said. "I'm just being cautious. I'm used to knee injuries and my knees being sore. It's just that it was the last game and we didn't want it to linger into a couple of more days."

Thibodeau also downplayed the issue.

"He had a little bit of soreness and with guys who are nicked up, we're going to play it safe," he said. "He would have preferred to have played some."

A whole bunch of hmm, there, but again: no indication from Rose that he'll be slowed in the playoffs. The left knee is what was nicked up in the Brooklyn game on this play, after which Rose only played a couple possessions.

Joakim Noah

Noah sat the last 2 games of the season with a hamstring issue, but is 'confident' that he'll be playing in Saturday's season opener. It's the left hamstring, which is of course connected to his surgically-repaired left knee.

Taj Gibson

Gibson's shoulder injury became news right before Wednesday's game, as he was listed as a gametime decision and Thibs said 'He'll be fine'.

Then he had to have a cortisone shot in the shoulder at halftime, and left the game midway through the third quarter.

Sweet, dumb Taj:

[Gibson] said he initially hurt his shoulder in a loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers on April 5.

"I was in a lot of pain," Gibson said. "I was in a lot of pain all [Tuesday]. Even in Brooklyn I was in a lot of pain, but I just kept playing. Kept playing and trying to be tough. Just trying to go after it and put my body first. Put my body before the team. No excuses. I just got to keep being tough. It's that time of the year. You got to push out all excuses, push out all the negativity, and it's time to go."

Kirk Hinrich

Hinrich also missed the last two games with a hyperextended knee, something he's struggled (valiantly, I'm sure you've heard) with for a couple weeks now. He's also indicated he'll be back for the postseason opener, which I take as a threat.

As Derrick would say, 'who knows?', but hopefully this is the correct team-wide assessment: