Rush Hurting but Finds Range

Sometimes Kareem Rush’s right foot just goes numb, and for a long time that made his jump shot short, or wide, or something.

“It shouldn’t have affected me on the court,” Rush said Monday, “but it did.”

Late in his second NBA season, Rush’s right foot has been stricken by a bone bruise, nerve irritation and an ankle sprain. As a result, Rush, who had become hot enough from behind the arc to lift his three-point percentage from .143 on Jan. 4 to .373 on March 10, did not make more than one three-point shot in a game after that.

He spent five of those games on the injured list, but his stroke left him when his foot began to bother him, right up until he made two three-pointers over five possessions in the fourth quarter of Game 1.

Now, Coach Phil Jackson said Rush is the team’s best three-point shooter.

“Maybe I’m the only one who sees that,” he said.

Asked whether he learned anything about Rush when those two shots fell, Jackson said, “Not anything I haven’t seen all year.”

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Rick Fox was one of the last to leave the floor before Monday night’s game, squeezing in every possible jumper before a team meeting.

He was hoping to become comfortable not with the bandage that protects his dislocated right thumb, but with stiffness in the thumb itself. It does not wrap around the ball as it does normally, so the ball comes out of his hand loosely.

“I’m trying,” he said on his way from the floor.

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Brian Shaw, nearing the end of his first season as a scout, was a welcome sight in the Laker locker room Monday night.

The popular Shaw said he spent much of the season watching college and high school players, most recently in the Big East tournament, the NCAA tournament and at the Portsmouth Invitational tournament. He’ll also be in Chicago for a pre-draft camp.

Shaw is considering what he’ll do next, whether in the capacity of coaching, scouting or the front office. He has a three-year contract with the Lakers.

“I’m still trying to find my way around,” he said.

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Center Jamal Sampson said Monday he hoped a month or two of rest would be enough to heal his right foot, which he said has a torn tendon. He said surgery, which would be his second on that foot this year, would be a last resort.