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Bynum plans to play despite knee

By Brian Kamenetzky
ESPNLosAngeles.com

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. -- Lakers center Andrew Bynum sat out practice this week to rest his injured right knee, but the time off didn't do him much good.

After participating in Saturday afternoon's practice, Bynum said the knee isn't cooperating.

"It's just worse. A little worse, but I'm still able to play through it so I'm going to keep pushing ahead," he said.

Bynum said he will receive treatment and play when the Lakers open the Western Conference finals Monday night at Staples Center against the Phoenix Suns.

Bynum suffered a torn meniscus in his right knee against the Oklahoma City Thunder on April 30th, but has continued to play through the pain. The injury, he said, became worse "probably in Game 3, Game 4" of the Lakers' second round series against the Utah Jazz. Bynum was effective in the first two games, averaging 12.5 points and 12 rebounds, but didn't score in Game 3 and had six in Game 4 as the Lakers swept Utah.

Overall, Bynum averaged 10.3 points and 6.3 rebounds in just under 25 minutes during the series.

Structurally, Bynum said the injury is no worse than before.

"[The problem is] keeping more swelling [out]. Not like the structure, but it's creating more swelling because I'm playing with an injured limb," he said. "It's just something that I'm just going to continue to treat, continue to try and pump the swelling out, milk it, and take it from there."

Lakers coach Phil Jackson said it was important to get Bynum on the floor ahead of Monday's Game 1.

"Andrew, he's running with some limitations but he still looks good," Jackson said. "It's still good to see him out there. We're just monitoring it. We wanted to get him some activity close to the game, but not make it too close, so there's some recovery time."

Bynum said he would "back off" during Sunday's practice. He isn't sure how effective he'll be defensively against Phoenix's high speed, pick-and-roll heavy offensive system. On the other end, Phoenix has struggled to defend bigger players inside. But if Bynum's mobility is hampered, the Lakers may not be able to exploit any matchup advantages. In four regular season games against the Suns, Bynum averaged nearly 18 points, 9.8 rebounds and 1.5 blocks.

Kobe Bryant, himself receiving treatment for a wide variety of injuries including his knee and finger, also participated in practice for the first time this week.

"I feel fine," he said. "Feels good."

Rust isn't weighing heavily on Bryant's mind. Asked to pinpoint his biggest concern about a long layoff between games without playing much basketball, Bryant shrugged. "I don't have one. None at all."

Brian Kamenetzky covers the Lakers for ESPNLosAngeles.com.

Aki wrote:hes injured, but he can play

its just a matter of managing the pain and swelling that occurs during and afterwards

this is an injury that just gets more painful, but not "career threatening" worse

Puffthemagic wrote:i have a tear now in my knee and let me tell you,it's hard to move,let alone play ball.I can fell for bynum,he's a warrior.I'm glad he's a laker.

iamworthy wrote:The moment the Cavs lost we were put in a better position. Bynum became less important. We can win a chip with putting LO in his place. At this point anything, and I mean anything he gives us is gravy. Boston isnt a juggernaut this year and the Suns/Magic arent physical teams. The Cavs are a different story. Going into this year I didnt think we could win without Bynum... I have changed my opinion since then

stunnar0b wrote:same old tune

semi-sentient wrote:We need to seriously see if the Cavs have any kind of interest in getting Bynum for LeBron should he decide to bail. That's not exactly a fair exchange, but it's damn sure better than nothing.

Aki wrote:its not THAT bad, those meniscus tears are not THAT bad

if it takes a couple of cortisone injections into the knee, just drain the knee of pus and in goes the needle.

Magicontinues wrote:

Aki wrote:its not THAT bad, those meniscus tears are not THAT bad

if it takes a couple of cortisone injections into the knee, just drain the knee of pus and in goes the needle.

Don't you think they have done that already?