Derrick Rose Tears ACL

In case you hadn't heard -- which is pretty much only possible if RwH is your exclusive source for basketball news -- Derrick Rose, Chicago's point guard and last season's MVP, tore his left ACL in the waning moments of the Bulls' Game 1 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers on Saturday. The Bulls were the top overall seed in the playoffs, and so this news affects the entire league, but it has a Boston nexus for two reasons.

First, and most importantly, the Celtics were lined up to the play the Bulls in the second round if they can get by the Hawks in the first round. That potential matchup obviously looks a little different now. The Bulls have had plenty of practice playing without Rose -- this is something like his sixth discrete injury of the season -- and they've done extraordinarily well without him: By my count, they went 18-9 in games in which Rose didn't play, including two wins over the Celtics. But there's a difference between winning regular-season games and winning playoff games. And there's a difference between beating a young, fracturing Philadelphia team in the playoffs, something I still fully expect them to do, and beating an experienced, veteran-laden Boston team (that's peaking at the right time) in the playoffs. It can be done, but it would require guys like C.J. Watson and John Lucas to replicate their excellent regular season performances in the first significant postseason action of their careers. And it means that a guy like Luol Deng, who has already stepped up his game this season, to elevate it yet another level or two. It's just a huge ask. The Celtics' road to the Eastern finals is undoubtedly a bit easier than it was when they woke up on Saturday morning -- as long as they get past Atlanta.

The other Boston connection is that Chicago head coach Tom Thibodeau, Doc's defensive right-hand man during the championship season, is coming under a little bit of fire for the fact that Rose was still on the court with under 90 seconds to go in a 12-point game. Personally, I don't think it's fair to blame Thibs. While it's true that Chicago probably wasn't going to lose that game, it's the playoffs, and in the playoffs, you want to be sure -- and that means keeping your starters in until the other team removes theirs. And Rose hasn't been on the court much lately, so it makes some sense to get him some reps in late-game situations.

I've always been critical of Doc for playing the guys for too long, but that's mainly because of their advanced age. Rose, despite all his injuries, can play major minutes at his age, and arguably needed those minutes to get into playing condition. And this wasn't a physical or chippy game, either, which might have counseled getting Rose out earlier than usual. Indeed, Rose's injury came on a play in which there was absolutely no contact; he drove into the lane and came to one of his patented, violent jump stops. His knee buckled on the landing.

Chicago fans are justifiably angry and disappointed at the misfortune that has befallen them. But the odds of getting injured in any given 90-second period of a basketball game are so slim that it makes little sense to worry about them. I'v heard some people opine that, because Rose's injury was non-contact, it was inevitable; that if it didn't happen in the closing seconds of this game, it was bound to happen soon. I'm not sure there's any medical evidence behind that, but the point is right. If Rose had torn his ACL during practice, or at a shootaround or walkthrough, would Thibodeau be getting the same kind of criticism? I doubt it, and that's the point here: the injury had nothing to do with the situation in which it occurred. It was incident to Rose being a professional basketball player. It's unfortunate, but it's one of those things that happens. Bulls fans may need to blame someone, and Thibodeau is going to be that person. But it's not his fault.