Gray has bursitis in knee

Bulls center Aaron Gray sat out Wednesday's practice with an ice bag wrapped around his right knee. A team spokesman termed the injury a case of bursitis.

"I don't even know if he banged it (Tuesday) night," coach Vinny Del Negro said. "(Trainer) Fred (Tedeschi) came to me this morning and said he's got some swelling in there - looks like it's infected. So he's on some medicine. Hopefully he'll respond well and be OK."

Gray started the last two games, both Bulls wins. He had 6 points and 3 rebounds against the Knicks.

Inside help could be on the way since veteran power forward Michael Ruffin practiced Wednesday, but he has been out since the second day of training camp with ankle and Achilles tendon injuries. Ruffin was often used a defensive specialist when he played for Milwaukee and Washington the past few seasons.

"He's been injured so much and he's out of condition and he hasn't practiced," Del Negro said. "He's got to get some practices under his belt, get the rhythm back. We'll just take that one day by day."

Rose defers down stretch: Derrick Rose explained why he wasn't very aggressive offensively in Tuesday's win over the Knicks. He scored on an eye-popping misdirection drive with 4:45 remaining, then took only 1 shot and did not score the rest of the way.

"I was just feeling the game," he said. "I thought that I wasn't feeling it right there to take the shot, so I passed it to my teammates hoping they could make the shot. That's what they did. Larry (Hughes) and all the other fellows on the team, they carried us. I tried to do it, but that's why you've got teammates."

Rose was sporting a new tattoo Wednesday, a rose on the back of his right hand featuring his mother Brenda's name.

Defense digs in late: Coach Vinny Del Negro wasn't necessarily impressed by the Bulls' late-game defensive stand Tuesday. They held the Knicks to just 1 basket during the final four minutes of the contest, including a streak of 8 straight misses.

"We're not getting enough stops during the game," he said. "So we're putting ourselves in that situation (where they need late-game stops) and that will end up hurting you in the long haul. We've got to have those defensive stands (earlier) and take control of the game."

Chance to pull even: The Bulls (10-11) have a chance to climb above .500 this weekend if they can win at Memphis on Friday, then at home Saturday against New Jersey. More than one player acknowledged that .500 is nothing to celebrate.

"I thought we should have won a couple of those games that we lost," Derrick Rose said. "I think we should be a couple games above .500."

Added Larry Hughes: "We feel like we can be better. We knew it was going to take some time, but we gave away some games already. We feel like we should be over .500 now."