BOSTON -- Chicago Bulls point guard Derrick Rose (left hamstring tightness) and center Joakim Noah (left eye/left knee) went through all of Thursday's practice and are both hoping to play Friday afternoon against the Boston Celtics.

Rose said he felt good after playing only 10 minutes in a loss to the Denver Nuggets on Tuesday. Rose, who has already missed eight games this season due to injury, did not play in the second half and admitted after the game that he and Bulls coach Tom Thibodeau decided it would be best if he sat out of the second half of the Nuggets game.

"I'm feeling good," Rose said. "I'm taking it one day at a time, getting the most out of all my treatments every day. Like I said before, just really trying to listen to my body. ... If I'm ready to go, I'm ready. If not, just really pay attention to my body. But the plan is that I want to play. So hopefully I'll be out there playing."

Thibodeau echoed those sentiments in regard to Rose's and Noah's participation.

"We'll see [Friday]," Thibodeau said. "But they were great today and we're just going day by day."

Rose, who has yet to start and finish two consecutive games this season, remains confident that he will be able to string together some games in the near future.

"You will see," he said. "You will see. I know I'm going to be all right. It's just that I'm getting a bad hand right now. I'm going through tough times, but I know it could always be worse and I know that I always got faith in myself and faith that somebody's looking over me."

Despite the ongoing pessimism surrounding his latest return, the former MVP remains outwardly confident that he will still be able to play at a high level.

"Coming back and even just playing a quarter, or playing a game, or even winning games and not having played in two years, that gives me a lot of confidence right there," Rose said. "I don't know if too many people could come back with the situation that I had or the hand I was dealt. That gives me confidence just knowing that I feel like I'm different."

After openly saying after Monday's win over the Utah Jazz that Rose needs to find ways to stay on the floor and that his star point guard didn't look "real comfortable with the ball yet," Thibodeau's stance has softened in recent days. That continued Thursday while discussing how Rose performed during his brief appearance against the Nuggets.

"To me, I want to look at it positively and I told him that," Thibodeau said. "The good thing was the way he played in Utah and then the fact he was able to play [in Denver], even though it was 10 minutes, those 10 minutes were good in terms of it gave us 10 minutes and put us in position to win. So it's not what it normally is with him where he plays 30 minutes or anything like that, but it's a step in the right direction. That's all we want him to do. He came over [to the gym], he felt good [Wednesday], he came over last night, he shot last night, he was great tonight. So it's all moving in the right direction. And that's all we want."

In other injury-related news, Thibodeau said power forward Taj Gibson is expected to rejoin the Bulls at some point on Thursday. He has been out all week after spraining his left ankle in the Bulls' loss to the Portland Trail Blazers on Nov. 21. It remains unlikely Gibson will play in the near future, including Sunday afternoon's game against the Brooklyn Nets.