Bucks at Bulls
Derrick Rose continues to experience knee soreness but insists he will
be on the floor Saturday when the Chicago Bulls host the Milwaukee Bucks
in Game 1 of the first-round Eastern Conference series. “I think I’m
used to knee injuries and my knee being sore,” Rose told reporters. “My
whole mindset going into these playoffs are no excuses and get the job
done.”
The third-seeded Bulls won three of four regular-season meetings with the sixth-seeded Bucks, who are in the playoffs for the first time since 2013. “We talked about the playoffs every day,” guard Khris Middleton told reporters. “That was one of our goals. It was one of the first things we said in our first meeting, and we put ourselves in position to reach it.” Milwaukee cracked the postseason despite losing rookie star Jabari Parker to a season-ending knee injury in December and later revamped the club in February by dealing point guard Brandon Knight and replacing him with Michael Carter-Williams. Chicago received a big season from power forward Pau Gasol, who excelled in his first season since joining the club as a free agent.
TV: 7 p.m. ET, ESPN, FSN Wisconsin (Milwaukee), CSN Chicago
ABOUT THE BUCKS (41-41): Milwaukee delivered a huge turnaround under new coach Jason Kidd after being a dreadful 15-67 one season ago. The injury to Parker was devastating but the Bucks regrouped and players such as forward Giannis Antetokounmpo and Middleton had solid campaigns. “We feel like we’ve had a great season so far and we’ve had a few ups and downs, but I think for the most part we’ve had a pretty good season,” Middleton told reporters. “Everybody’s come together and is buying into what we want to do here, so that has helped the process.”
ABOUT THE BULLS (50-32): Gasol terrorized the Bucks with a career-best 46 points to go with 18 rebounds on Jan. 18, one of his career-best 54 double-doubles. He is gearing up for a big postseason and feels the team is primed to make a deep run. “I came here to have an opportunity to win a title and I hope we can accomplish that,” Gasol told reporters. “You don’t take anything for granted and you never know what will be the next year so you have to embrace and enjoy the point you find yourself in.”
BUZZER BEATERS
1. The Bucks and Bulls are meeting in the playoffs for the first time since 1990.
2. Carter-Williams has scored 30 points in two of the past five games.
3. Chicago C Joakim Noah (hamstring) is expected to be ready after missing the final two regular-season games.