On November 27, I received an e-mail from our PR department with the following title: “Lakers Injury Update,” the subject being Andrew Bynum and his right foot. Here’s what I wrote:
“Essentially, the small bone spur in his right foot may cause him irritation particularly after he plays on it, but Bynum said the pain is not expected to last for more than two weeks.”
Fast forward to Monday, 11 days after the original reporting of the injury: Bynum has appeared in all six games, putting up 17.3 points and 9.3 boards for good measure. If that’s not a good thing, then the roasted garlic rye chips aren’t the best part of Gardetto’s.
However, since we haven’t even talked about his foot in well over a week, I asked Phil Jackson about it after Monday’s practice to make sure we weren’t missing anything. His response: “Sometimes (Andrew) has issues after a hard day, if he’s played 30 minutes … But that’s the only thing we’re monitoring.”
Essentially, there’s still a bit of pain, but he’s fine. Bynum’s numbers certainly don’t reflect that he’s suffering too badly, and meanwhile, we’ve definitely seen him be more aggressive offensively in the six games after the injury than in the 13 before it (two more field goal attempts). In fact, nearly all of his number have gone up; here are his pre- and post-injury stats:
Pre-Injury: Oct. 28 to Nov. 26
Games: 13
Minutes: 28.8
Points: 11.5
Rebounds: 8.7
Blocks: 2.38
Assists: 2.0
FG%: 52.7% (58-of-110)
FGA: 8.46
Post-Injury: Nov. 27 to Dec. 8
Games: 6
Minutes: 31.8
Points: 17.3
Rebounds: 9.3 (including his season low three boards at Philadelphia)
Blocks: 1.3
Assists: 1.8
FG%: 60% (39-of-65)
FGA: 10.8
To be clear, I’m not saying that Bynum’s foot injury has made him play better (that would be a ridiculous theory). My point is simply that the foot hasn’t affected him while he’s continued to get better, improve his game conditioning and get almost back to where he was before the January 2007 injury. The numbers are almost there already … See for yourself:
Bynum’s January 2007 Stats
Games: 6
Minutes: 29
Points: 17.3
Rebounds: 12.2
Blocks: 2.3
Assists: 2.6
FG%: 70% (42-of-60)
FGA: 10
One final note here: L.A. didn’t have Pau Gasol during Bynum’s January 2007 run, so apply that as you will to ‘Drew’s production.
