NBCSports.com reporting:
Pulling a page from the hockey playoffs playbook — Injury? What injury? — the Chicago Bulls did do an MRI on Derrick Rose’s left ankle (they denied they would) after he aggravated it Monday night on the final play of the Bulls loss to the Hawks.
And the news isn’t good according to David Kaplan of CSN Chicago.
Sources told me that Rose suffered a Grade 2 sprain of one of the main ligaments on the outside of his ankle and it could affect his mobility for Game 2 on Wednesday evening. He will be treated with several different methods and is expected to start when the Bulls try to even the series.A Grade 2 sprain means a partial tearing of the ligament, which usually means a lot of swelling, there is a decreased range of motion and more instability in the ankle.
Rose did participate in the Bulls practice Tuesday and reported no swelling.
Rose is going to play, make no mistake.
But as we pointed out before, this injury is impacting Rose’s play.
Rose shot 49 free throws in the three playoff games before he first sprained his ankle in Game 4 against the Pacers. In the last three games it is 11 total, trips to the line, including zero in the Bulls Game 1 loss to the Hawks.
Rose is not as explosive and not driving into players to draw contact like he did before. This sprain will mean worse lateral movement as well.
Rose is going to be named the league MVP Tuesday because he carried the Bulls offense through the regular season. If he can’t carry it in the playoffs, the Bulls have some serious problems.
http://probasketballtalk.nbcsports.com/2011/05/03/report-mri-shows-grade-2-sprain-on-derrick-rose%e2%80%99s-ankle/related/