Andrew Bynum is relieved that his Achilles tendon is strained and not torn, but the Lakers won’t be relieved until their big man is back on the court.
Despite the positive result of Bynum’s MRI, the 22-year-old likely will miss the Lakers’ next six games, ESPN.com reports. The plan is for Bynum to be re-evaluated when L.A. returns from a road trip on April 1, since the center will travel with the team as opposed to staying home to rehabilitate the injury.
"I just have a lot of pain in that area," Bynum told ESPN.com. "I'll be re-evaluated in a week. There's really not too much to say until that really calms down."
Coach Phil Jackson said that Bynum could not walk on the foot without a boot on Saturday.
The fact that the injury is just a strain must be music to Bynum’s ears, considering he has missed sizeable portions of the past two seasons with knee injuries. Bynum missed the final three-and-a-half months of the 2007-08 season as well as the Lakers’ loss to the Celtics in the NBA Finals. Last season, the big man missed all of February and March but returned for the end of the regular season and was an integral piece of the Lakers' title run.
Bynum is enjoying a relatively injury-free campaign this season, missing just four games before injuring his left Achilles against the Timberwolves on Friday. Things were going so well for Bynum that he joked about it in a recent interview. He realized he may have upset the karma Gods by speaking of his good fortune but is optimistic he will be good to go soon.
"I think I'll be all right, though," Bynum told ESPN.com. "I should be good. … I thought it was going to be worse, and when they told me [Saturday] it's not as bad [as it could have been], I was happy."
