Derrick Rose, the injured Bulls superstar point guard, had just finished his pregame shooting at the Garden Friday night when he headed back to the locker room. A fan reached over a railing, extended a friendly handshake and told Rose to heal quickly.
"I'm trying, man," Rose said before his Bulls beat the Knicks, 108-101, their third consecutive win over coach Mike Woodson's crew.
As hard as Rose is trying to return, the Bulls are hoping just as hard, though they knew from the outset that Rose's torn left ACL, suffered April 28, was going to result in a long, arduous rehab. Rose began practicing right before New Year's, and this week he began what was termed "predictable" contact, like getting hit with pads.
Hey, the Bulls are trying, but they're staying patient, man. Rose tentatively is projected to return after the All-Star break, in late February or early March.
"It's a long process. He's got a ways to go," said Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau, whose defense-first preaching had the Bulls five games over .500, 1 1/2 games behind the Pacers in the Central Division entering last night's rematch with the Knicks. "He hasn't gone through a full practice yet and he's got to do that for an extended amount of time, but he's doing extremely well.
"He's approached it great, and we couldn't ask for anything more. And our team has done a great job with their approach, and that's the way we want to keep it right now."
The Bulls are second in the East in defense (behind Indiana) and had beaten the Knicks twice previously, surrendering just 85 points in Chicago before outlasting them, 110-106, at the Garden.
Both times without Rose. But they were prepared for that scenario.
"When we started off the season, we knew this was going to be a long process," Thibodeau said. "So I think for us, we wanted the focus with the guys that were playing to be on improvement and the next opponent, and we wanted Derrick to focus in on his rehab."
After all, the season really doesn't begin until April.
"Knowing we want to be playing our best basketball the second half of the season, we want to be as healthy as possible and at some point he'll rejoin us," Thibodeau said of Rose. "So I think that type of approach — whether Derrick was there or not there — would be the same. So we didn't want to change our style of play. Obviously the strengths and weaknesses of all the players are different. We want to play to our strengths, cover up our weaknesses, but for us we know it's our defense, our rebounding, taking care of the ball playing inside out and sharing the ball. Those are the things we want to do each and every night."
Rose is back on the court and the step-by-step, drawn-in-detail process continues.
"Everyone has to be patient," Thibodeau said. "He's done his work. It's a well-mapped-out plan. He goes step by step and when he handles one step well and he's comfortable, he gets moved on to the next one."
fred.kerber@nypost.com
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