Rose admits he needs to take over games offensively

But following Monday's practice at the Berto Center, Rose answered the question of whether he must try to take over games offensively for the Bulls to have any chance with the same aggressiveness he's played with of late.

"Yeah, but it's hard," Rose said, almost sheepishly. "Everybody is focusing on me on the court. It's very hard being in a position where I'm a point guard who's supposed to pass the ball.

"People say they want me to shoot more. But I'm a point guard. I can't do that. I have to pass the ball to people and get people open. Taking over as a point guard is getting people open and shooting one here and there. If I was a two guard, it'd be something else."

And therein lies one of the many Bulls' offensive rubs. In the netherworld between the departure of Ben Gordon and the potential arrival of The Next Great Free Agent, the Bulls can't score consistently.

Thus, the pressure to do so falls on the sculpted shoulders of the 21-year-old hometown kid, the one who'd just as soon make a play for somebody else than get trigger happy.

"That's not my game right now," Rose said.

The reality is: It has to be.

After all that talk yesterday about whether Derrick Rose should look to shoot more often, I thought he responded well and looked much more like the budding star we expected this season, despite missing about 12 minutes in the first half with a rib strain.

Rose attacked the basket well on his way to 21 points and probably would have scored 30 if he’d been able to finish off a couple point-blank drives and knock down a couple more open jumpers.

When the season began, I talked about how Rose should start getting the foul calls he deserves in his second trip through the league, but it’s still not happening. He attempted 4 free throws against the Lakers.

Early in the third quarter with the Bulls trailing by 4, Rose came down on the fast break, crashed into Derek Fisher and was called for a charge even though Fisher was not only sliding sideways at contact, but also still moving backward. Danny Crawford, one of the league’s best referees, made the call.

So I’m not sure what Rose can do differently. It was obvious why Kirk Hinrich and Tyson Chandler didn’t get many calls when they first arrived in the league – because they complained too much and the refs didn’t appreciate it. I even saw Dick Bavetta lecture Hinrich on the court during one game.

I haven’t seen Rose complain as much, but he’s clearly getting frustrated.