With Steve Kerr on the injured list until at least Nov. 23 with a bruised bone in his left knee, the Bulls on Saturday signed Rusty LaRue. The former two-sport star from Wake Forest played off the bench in seven preseason games for the Bulls, averaging 4.1 points in 11.3 minutes.
LaRue, who played one game for the Idaho Stampede of the Continental Basketball Association, will make a portion of the league’s minimum salary of $272,500, or roughly $3,353 a game.
“We’ll keep him for as long as we need him,” Bulls General Manager Jerry Krause said. “He already knows what we’re doing. What we try to do with the guys who come to training camp is if they do what we ask, we tell them we’ll bring them back if there’s an injury.”
LaRue, a good long-range shooter, made an impression on Bulls coach Phil Jackson during the exhibition season, mainly because he adapted to the team’s triangle offense so quickly. That’s why Saturday’s move didn’t come as a total shock to LaRue, who flew to Chicago from Boise on Saturday after scoring 11 points with seven assists against Sioux Falls in a CBA game on Friday.
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“I had an opportunity to play in the preseason and did well,” LaRue said. “I feel comfortable coming in and getting the opportunity. I showed I could learn this offense and run it. It’s an offense where you can’t just bring anybody in during the regular season and they’ll fit in.”
Sick call: Dennis Rodman battled the stomach flu during Saturday’s game. He had to leave the floor at the end of the first quarter. Rodman still ended up with a game-high 18 rebounds and helped hold Shawn Kemp to 11 points on 5-for-12 shooting in the Bulls’ 79-70 victory.
“We were able to come down and help out Dennis against Kemp,” Jackson said. “Dennis did a good job against him. In Cleveland, Kemp went outside and even hit threes. We were able to contain him down low and our defense was very good.”
Changing places: When the Cavs beat the Bulls in Cleveland on Tuesday they shot 55 percent and committed 15 turnovers that led to seven Bulls points. In Saturday’s rematch at the United Center they shot 37.2 percent and committed 27 turnovers that led to 28 Bulls points.
There was a similar disparity in individual statistics. Cavs forward Wesley Person, 8 of 13 for 17 points on Tuesday, was 3 for 11 and scored eight. Shawn Kemp, also 8 for 13 on Tuesday, was 5 for 12 and scored 11. Mitchell Butler and Cedric Henderson, who had given the Cavs a huge boost off the bench by going 10 for 13 for 21 points, combined to shoot 4 for 16 and score eight points.
And rookie Brevin Knight, who had seven assists and only two turnovers in Cleveland, had five assists and five turnovers in the rematch.
“We’re trying to get better as a team, and you’ve got to play against the best to learn where you are,” Knight said. “Tonight we learned we’re getting better, but we have a long way to go.”
Been there . . .: Cavs coach Mike Fratello wasn’t surprised that the Bulls could expose his young team just four days after being embarrassed by it.
“You go through times when you have things like this happen to you. Then you just shake your head,” Fratello said. “But that’s youth. They’re going through different stages. Tonight we couldn’t make the open shot. Then they broke down our concentration defensively, and frustration set in.
“We lost tonight, but if we gained understanding from it, who knows. It may be something we can build on.”