Both Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah went through a second consecutive full day of practices on Tuesday, and Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau didn’t see any reason why neither would miss the first game played in the United Center this preseason.
The tough part will be making sure each get enough minutes and are moving forward on pace for the opener in Miami two weeks away.
“We’ll see what he can handle,’’ Thibodeau said of Rose, who missed Saturday’s preseason game in Brazil because of soreness in his surgically-repaired left knee. “We’ve got to work him up to starter’s minutes, but we’ll see.’’
For Noah [groin] it will be a bit different. While the All-Star center has practiced with his team daily, he is yet to play in a preseason game. That means he’s scheduled to get three segments of six to eight minutes.
“You can do all the things on the sideline and running,’’ Noah said. “There’s nothing that comes close to game-time conditioning. It’s going to be hard. But I’m really excited to get on the court and give what I got.’’
Because Noah’s conditioning was so good coming into camp, the center did say that he wasn’t concerned about being ready for the Heat in two weeks.
