His status is pivotal, we need him more than ever.
ESPN: Lakers center Andrew Bynum, who played only 12 minutes in Game 4 of the NBA Finals on Thursday because of his injured knee, underwent an MRI and had fluid drained on Friday.
Before the procedures, Bynum said he would be “be ready to go” when the Lakers play the Celtics in Game 5 on Sunday.
“I got two days, I’ll get some treatment, pump a little bit of the swelling out and try to attack on Sunday,” Bynum said after finishing with only two points and three rebounds, and playing only two minutes in the second half.
The MRI revealed no new damage to his right knee, and the Lakers said that he had fluid drained just as he did before the Finals began.
The question now becomes whether Bynum will be able to be effective in what has become a best-of-three series to determine the championship.
After Game 3, Bynum said he was “questionable” after twice tweaking his torn right meniscus. In Game 4, Bynum did not start the second half, remaining in the locker room to do quad-activation exercises with the Lakers’ training staff. He came in for Lamar Odom with 4:03 remaining in the third quarter but exited for good with 2:13 left in the quarter, barely able to make it up and down the floor.
“It bothered us in the second half not having Andrew be able to come out and play the start of the second half,” Lakers coach Phil Jackson said. “He tried a couple minutes, but it just wasn’t there for him. We’re glad we have a couple days off and we can kind of get him back hopefully in position where he can help us out again.”
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