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LOS
ANGELES—Everything finally bubbles and boils over Monday
night in a precursor to the Western Conference finals.
Not for
the Los Angeles Lakers, who on Sunday disclosed that
center Andrew Bynum would undergo arthroscopic surgery
on his injured left knee this week. They eclipsed the
Utah Jazz on Friday, avoiding a deciding game Monday
night and ticketing a Wednesday start of conference
finals at Staples Center.
The Game
Seven that remains Monday night is a matchup of the New
Orleans Hornets and San Antonio Spurs, whose series may
signify a passing of the torch from the elderly to the
up-and-coming.
And to
the victors, a chance to play the Lakers.
Los Angeles
coach Phil Jackson used Sunday to contemplate each
team’s distinctions and drawbacks.
“They’ve
been through a lot of heavy battles over the last three
years with that group of guys that they are real
comfortable with,” Jackson said of the Spurs. “They’ve
got pretty much a known answer to a variety of problems.
They’re the oldest team in the league, and that weighs a
lot in experience factor. It also weighs against them in
just the recovery aspect of it.
“On the
other side, you’ve got a very young team, full of
confidence and very capable, very athletic, that has a
combination of driving and shooting capabilities.…So,
we’ve got two teams that are very competent, very
proficient.”
The
tipping point may be the venue, with the game Monday
night in the Big Easy. The Hornets are 6-0 there this
postseason, and the home-court team is 22-2 in the
second round.
The
Hornets have run through the Spurs by an average of
nearly 20 points in the three games at New Orleans Arena
during the series. Hornets forward David West is
expected to play after sitting out the end of Game Six
because of a sore back, provided by a Robert Horry pick.
“If I
was the Lakers, I would like to play New Orleans just
because of the coaching matchup and because of their
so-called inexperience, which I think is a little
overrated,” said an NBA advance scout who is not
authorized by his team to speak without anonymity.
“You
wouldn’t mind
San Antonio
being a little emotionally fatigued and a little older.
But, you never wish to face the defending champions.”
Whomever
they face, it has long been clear that the Lakers will
do so without Bynum.
His
surgery is scheduled for Wednesday in New York by Dr.
David Altcheck. It will involve cleaning up rough spots
in his knee and some fraying underneath the kneecap.
A team
spokesman said the Lakers on Wednesday will release a
report of the surgery and estimated timeline of Bynum’s
return.
Bynum
has been out since January 13 because of a bone bruise
in the knee and a subluxation of the kneecap—a brief
dislocation that popped back into place.
“It’s
always been kind of a nebulous area ever since the first
couple of weeks after his [injury], it’s always been,
‘is this going to be something that’s going to be the
end result?’”
Jackson
said. “We hope it’s going to be the end result of the
knee injury that he had.”
Only a
handful of Lakers were on hand for an informal practice
Sunday that involved scrimmaging, shooting and
conditioning.
Kobe
Bryant, Lamar Odom and Derek Fisher were given the day
off. Pau Gasol and Sasha Vujacic came in for treatment.
“Sasha
got banged around a little bit,” Jackson said. “Pau’s
ankle. Kobe’s back. Lamar’s knee. You just go down the
list of things that go on, and players have to maintain
it. There’s just nagging injuries that go on through
this time of the year, and you want them to be as
healthy as possible.”
Vujacic
experienced a bit of whiplash in Game Six, taking a
charge against Utah’s Paul Millsap and banging his head
against the court.
“Everybody was teasing me and joking around in the
locker room afterwards, but it was worth it,” Vujacic
said. “We got away with a win, and it was great.”
And what
was the teasing about?
“My
first charge of the year and stuff like that,” he said.
--AP |
