Rose "I'm going to get better"

For reasons and moments too numerous to list, this will be a season Derrick Rose  will never forget. He will live within its highs and lows for the next few months in Chicago and California, and wherever else he travels. He will probably draw on the lessons he learned for the rest of his life.

James and Wade ended the night together, happy, on the dais. Meanwhile, Rose faced the media alone, a metaphor for some, perhaps. His eyes looked glassy, his spirit as low as I've seen it.

No, you don't blame Rose for the loss, just like you don't blame him for taking that jumper at the end of regulation in Game 4, but you expect him to learn from it, dwell on it and use it as fuel for the future. That's what the great ones do.

"Everything is a learning experience," Rose said.

What can he learn?

"I'm going to get better," Rose said, ignoring specifics. "I'm not worried about that. If anything, this is going to make me hungry."

James praised Rose after the game, reiterated that Rose earned the MVP some cranks say really belongs to James now. He said this series should help Rose in the long run.

"It's going to help you," he said. "I've been in situations where I say, 'Why me?' at this point. But you have to keep working and be put in those positions, time after time after time, where if you fail, you have to be ready to take that challenge again and again and again."

"Experience is a great teacher," Thibodeau said. "He'll study, he'll prepare, he'll get better. I hope our team will get better.

"Sometimes you have to go through things and experience them before you understand how tough and hard -- all these games were tough, hard-fought games that came down to the end. Sometimes you have to will it, and it's a hustle play here, a hustle play there, and that's the difference. Sometimes things aren't going your way and you have to be able to navigate through that stuff. You have to continue to concentrate. You have to play with poise."

"What he's done for this city and what he's done for this franchise in just three years is remarkable," James said. "The sky is the limit for that guy. I mean, wow, as a fan. He's going to get better and better. Hopefully we don't have to continue to see him in the postseason."

"We will," Wade said.

"Yeah, we will," James said, with a smile.