PLEASE have him come back for the game on Friday! We'll have somebody go "Trevor Ariza" on him!
Can't wait to see Drew out there.
Wait til you see Andrew Bynum
Ding column: He's looking incredible in practice.
Kevin Ding
The Orange County Register
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LOS ANGELES Andrew Bynum is coming back, perhaps as soon as Thursday night against Denver.
Just as those “Banging with Mbenga” T-shirts were starting to take off, too. (It’s just as well, because it doesn’t take a wordsmith to realize those shirts should say: “Mbanging with Mbenga.” Maybe as a tribute, Bynum will go out there Thursday night with “MBYNUM” on his back.)
Just in watching Bynum do his thing in a pregame workout session with Lakers assistant coach Brian Shaw on Sunday night, anyone would conclude that Bynum can do pretty much whatever he is needed. He is pain-free and if this were the postseason would undoubtedly be playing right now.
He’s fully capable of helping right now, too. Phil Jackson, hardly Pollyanna when it comes to this sort of thing, allowed that Bynum was “kind of the dominant force in there” in his 5-on-5 work at practice Saturday.
Bynum knows he’s basically ready to roll. You could see it in the big smile on his face Sunday. But Jackson wants a controlled atmosphere for Bynum to get off to a confidence-building start in his return. No way will he bring Bynum back first in a road game, and Jackson is even a little uneasy about whether Denver – the league’s No. 6 scoring team – plays too up-tempo a game for Bynum to be altogether comfortable Thursday night.
But Denver isn’t a superfast team anymore. It’s a perfectly fine setting for Bynum to come back – not rushing, but not delaying too much.
And here’s the other reason it’s time for Bynum: Isn’t everyone getting a little sick of watching the bench play as it is currently constructed?
Jackson certainly is. Even though Jordan Farmar had a decent game Sunday night against the Clippers – shaking off two missed jumpers and staying aggressive thereafter – Jackson gave Farmar an abrupt hook with 4:50 left and the Lakers ahead by 14 points.
Farmar made a mindless turnover, his only one of the game against five assists, trying to force-feed the post, which triggered a Clippers fast break.
Farmar later argued about it with Jackson, as has happened often this season. Soon it was Sasha Vujacic’s turn to feel Jackson’s wrath – yelled at for being in no man’s land on defense, neither double-teaming Zach Randolph in the post nor sticking to Fred Jones on the perimeter before Randolph passed and Jones made a 3-pointer.
Bynum is coming back to help Pau Gasol, but who is going to be there if something should befall Kobe Bryant or Derek Fisher as the playoffs near?
Fisher already came up with soreness in his left foot Sunday – the pain was baffling to him, but it decreased in the second half and he is optimistic he can cancel an MRI scheduled for Monday morning – and Fisher had already packed his knees in ice before Jackson sent him back in for the final 4:16 in Vujacic’s place. Bryant had returned 34 seconds earlier to replace Farmar.
Bryant complained after the game about the need to get the bench playing “up to their potential.”
The inconsistent bench play is not all Farmar’s or Vujacic’s fault, although the only more precipitous drops in numbers than theirs from last season have occurred in the stock market.
It will also help Farmar and Vujacic tremendously to have Bynum return. Jackson has already switched to subs uting piecemeal and making sure either Gasol or Bryant is out there at all times to help the bench. But with Bynum’s return, the bench will either get a defensive stopper back there in Bynum or it will get the unselfish Lamar Odom.
For sure, Odom would be a cool breeze for the bench’s frontcourt that has grown accustomed to watching both Josh Powell and Mbenga show increased and excessive en lement in jacking up shots. (As fun as Mbenga might be, you just never know what he’s going to do out there – and too often it is a lot of bad stuff. That’s how he can have the team’s worst plus-minus rating Sunday night at minus-14 compared to Gasol’s team-best plus-17, even with Gasol having a poor shooting night.)
Asked about moving back to a reserve role he initially resisted this season, Odom said: “Of course.”
He didn’t do too well as a reserve this season and definitely plays better with more minutes, but Odom seemed legitimately excited about sparking the struggling “Bench Mob,” saying: “It’s about the championship.”
After this next game in Sacramento, it’ll be time to bring Bynum back and really start the push for it.
http://www.ocregister.com/articles/b...5-night-farmar
Oh yeah, now that's what I'm talking about. Even Philip couldn't hold back his excitement.
He's not Wilt but he is next.
Well you Spurs fans should keep thinking Drew Gooden is your savior! Lol!Yep cuz the best center ever Kareem Abdul JaBynum is back.It's a joke to me how they think this kid is the second coming of Wilt...you Laker fans watch too much ESPN.
Damn who makes these Laker videos, those are so sick. When you have the sound on loud & you play em they give you goosebumps
The Lakers would be smart to just sit Bynum for the rest of the season & use that as the excuse when the lose in the Playoffs to Portland….
Agreed on those videos - here are the ones from last years playoff run
Of course the Spurs one
And also on Bynum - its not as good as he is but on how good of a team he makes LA.
With the Cavs only 2-6 vs the other 3 teams who will end up with 60 wins, Cleveland has their own problems.
LD2K makes most of them. He made the Blazer game 7 video, also. Which is the best video ever.Damn who makes these Laker videos, those are so sick. When you have the sound on loud & you play em they give you goosebumps
BIG Z offers nothing but a jumpshot. Veraflop & Ben Wallace have no offensive arsenal at all. Joe Smith isn't that bad but teams with no real post game rarely win les.
Agreed about the Big man advantage. This is where the mismatch occurs. The Cavs are soft in the middle, whereas the Laker's biggest strength is in the middle.
Add to that the Lakers are one of the few teams that can guard LeBron one on one.
LD2K is Chris Manning ... he makes GREAT Laker videos and has a Laker website that recently became part of AM570
www.thelakernation.com
great site if you're a laker fan
Bynum > Amare
Amare isn't even a center.
will he be leaving am570 and go to ESPN once the lakers switch?
Bynum ready for return to Lakers
03:42 PM PDT on Monday, April 6, 2009
BY JEFF EISENBERG
The Press-Enterprise
Andrew Bynum endured another 5-on-5 full-court scrimmage during practice on Monday, pronouncing himself ready to return to action whenever the Lakers decide to activate him.
The Lakers center will not travel with the rest of the team for Tuesday's Sacramento game, but he could play as soon as Thursday when LA plays host to Denver in a game scheduled to be televised nationally by TNT.
"(My stamina) is pretty good right now," Bynum said Monday. "Obviously it's still not a real game, but you get timeouts to rest. I'm not all the way back to where I was, but I'm getting pretty close."
Bynum peformed well enough in practice to impress his teammates, especially Kobe Bryant, who described Bynum's play as "Good. Real good."
"He'll blend right in," Bryant said. "It's similar to when we added Pau to the mix. He fits so well with what we do, so I don't think it will be a problem at all."
Bynum, a 7-foot center, has not played since suffering a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee when Kobe Bryant rolled into his lower body in Memphis on Jan. 31.
In 46 games before the injury, Bynum averaged 14.0 points, 8.2 rebounds and 1.87 blocks per game.
http://www.pe.com/sports/basketball/...7.2bc5c60.html
The NBA better watch out!!!!
Thursdayyyyyy!
I'm hoping Thursday . I can't wait to see him throwing it down on Birdman.
Bynum's definitely coming back on Thursday vs the Nugz, nothin' holding him back now.
Just saw this video...Lamar on Bynum in Practice and LO is ready to go back to the bench:
Lakers' Bynum looking at two dates
Maybe not this thursday, but at less Sunday against the Grizzlies or next Thursday vs. the jozz!Andrew Bynum said Monday after going through another full-contact, full-court scrimmage that he's set a date to play again after sitting out 31 games because of a torn ligament in his right knee.
Actually, there are two dates.
"Memphis and Utah," he said, referring to the Lakers' last two regular-season games Sunday against the Grizzlies and next Tuesday against the Jazz. "No doubt. Back this year. Leg is feeling good. No pain. No swelling."
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