The Lakers are off to a great start this season, but the early word on Andrew Bynum’s knee injury is that he’s going to miss eight weeks. It looks like a dislocated kneecap, which won’t require surgery but will require a lot of rest.
The team has won six straight and is 25-11, which puts them just a half game behind the Suns in the Pacific. They play in Seattle tonight and then they have the Suns, Nuggets, Spurs, Mavs and Cavs over the next two weeks. Then, after a home game against the Knicks, they play 12 of the next 13 games on the road, so if the team struggles without Bynum, things could get ugly very quickly.
In the 25 games that Bynum started, he averaged 14.6 points and 10.7 rebounds, and shot an eye-popping 65.6% from the field. During the team’s six-game win streak, he averaged 17.3 points, 12.2 rebounds and 2.3 blocks, which are borderline All-Star numbers.
Kwame Brown will likely be the main guy to try to fill Bynum’s shoes, and while he’s a decent defensive center, he just doesn’t have Bynum’s feel on offense.
If the Lakers go into a major slide, Kobe may not stay quiet on those trade demands he made last summer, though you’d think that Bynum’s play would have Bryant feeling pretty good about the Lakers’ short-term future.
