LOS ANGELES -- After the Chicago Bulls defeated the Los Angeles Clippers 106-88 Wednesday for their sixth straight victory, several reporters tried to engage Derrick Rose with questions about the NBA's young stars.
The questions centered on how Rose, Blake Griffin, Kevin Durant and others could form the NBA's next golden age.
Rose listened politely, but his blank stare presaged what his answer would be.
"I'm just trying to win every game, man," Rose said. "That's what I want to do in this league. It makes you belong with the elite players. It don't matter if you win by one points or 20 points. As long as you get wins in this league, I think that you'll get noticed."
It's this mindset that has the Bulls tied with the Heat for the Eastern Conference's second-best record and Rose legitimately placed in the league's most valuable player conversation.
"That's who he is," coach Tom Thibodeau said. "He's never satisfied. He wants the team to do well. He's always driving himself to get better."
So is Thibodeau. So his reaction to Wednesday's impressive win, which snapped the Clippers' nine-game home winning streak and began the Bulls' five-game trip in positive fashion, sounded on cue.
"It's important to start this way," Thibodeau said. "But the big thing (Thursday) is to have our focus on getting ready for Golden State. We know we have to have a good practice, a good shootaround, not feel too good about today. That's gone.
"Golden State is another team if you allow them to get going early, they can put big points on the board. It'll be another great test for us. We know we'll have our hands full and we have to be ready to play."
The Bulls stayed overnight in Los Angeles on Wednesday and were scheduled to fly to San Francisco on Thursday. They were scheduled to have a team meeting and film session and optional workout, then practice Friday and shootaround on Saturday morning in advance of Saturday's game against the Warriors.
