Derrick Rose crumbled to the floor, clutching his left knee. His season is over and the Bulls’ title hopes just might be finished, too.

Rose will miss the rest of the season after tearing the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee late in host Chicago’s 103-91 victory over the Philadelphia 76ers in Saturday’s playoff opener, casting a big cloud over a team eyeing a championship run.

He scored 23 points and was playing more like the league’s reigning MVP after missing 27 games because of injuries during the regular season, but his injury-plagued season came to an end as the Bulls were wrapping up an impressive victory.

Rose crumbled to the court after he drove the lane with about 1:20 left and the Bulls leading by 12. Team medical personnel immediately rushed out and tended to Rose for several minutes as he was writhing in pain near the baseline before helping him to the locker room. Rose was taken to the hospital, and the results of the MRI were not good.

Whether Rose should have been in the game at that point figures to be debated for a long time around Chicago. He checked back in with just under eight minutes left and the lead got as high as 20 shortly after that before the Sixers chipped away at it.

With Philadelphia making a push, coach Tom Thibodeau decided to stay with Rose. “I don’t work backward like you guys do,’’ Thibodeau said. “The score was going the other way.’’

Sixers coach Doug Collins also had Thibodeau’s back.

“From his standpoint, he wanted to finish that game for what he did. It’s awful that Derrick got hurt,’’ said Collins.

Rose found his touch after a slow start and also contributed nine rebounds and nine assists. Richard Hamilton added 19 points, Luol Deng scored 17, and Joakim Noah had 12 points and 13 rebounds for Chicago.