The Lakers have their first serious injury of the season with starting center Kwame Brown diagnosed Monday with a sprained medial collateral ligament in his left knee. Lamar Odom suffered a similar injury early last season and missed a month and a half — 21 games — although the Lakers have not put a timetable on Brown’s absence.
Brown was evaluated Monday by Lakers doctor Steve Lombardo and won’t be re-evaluated for a week. He was hurt Sunday night when Chicago’s Ben Wallace rolled into the outside of Brown’s leg.
Given Brown’s trouble with recovering from injuries, he’s not really one you would expect to beat any timetables back. Generally speaking, sprained MCL’s are a one-to-two-month proposition, even though the Lakers haven’t projected Brown’s down time yet.
Even though I know plenty of people dismiss Brown as a bad-hands, overpaid ($9 million) clod, he is at least valuable to them for his defense. That’s where it’ll be a challenge for Chris Mihm and Andrew Bynum to maintain the Lakers’ fine play. Mihm isn’t nearly the athlete Brown is, and Bynum has just recently started to show any real grasp of team defense.
