Bryant Slows Down His Pace

The Lakers, whatever’s left of them, carried on with another practice Wednesday before sending three players to doctors and watching Kobe Bryant down-shift from his rehabilitation routine.

Aaron McKie went to a back specialist, Vladimir Radmanovic to a hand doctor and Kwame Brown to a shoulder specialist, all after Bryant, recovering from surgery on his right knee, went from light scrimmages at recent practices to an individual workout at the team training facility.

Bryant then declared himself out for exhibitions tonight and Friday at Staples Center. He seemed more subdued than usual as he spoke to reporters.

“Whenever you have an injury, a knee injury or ankle, whatever it is, it’s always a little ginger and tentative to kind of put some weight on it,” Bryant said. “I’m just kind of working through that a little bit. I don’t see myself playing either one of those games.”

Team officials hope Bryant will play at least one exhibition, but they are also preparing for the fact he might not play until the Oct. 31 season opener.

“I wouldn’t bet my life on it, but I suspect he is going to play,” assistant coach Kurt Rambis said.

Bryant said an exhibition would “help tremendously,” acknowledging the need to get up to speed on his conditioning and timing.

Either way, the Lakers aren’t yet reaching for the panic button. They went through a similar situation three years ago when Bryant came back from nearly identical off-season arthroscopic surgery on his right knee. He played in the team’s final two exhibitions, missed the regular-season opener, then played on from there, helping the team to an 18-3 start.

But those Lakers had Shaquille O’Neal in the middle, while these Lakers can’t seem to stay out of harm’s way.

Radmanovic, off to a seven-for-27 (25.9%) shooting start, had an MRI test on his sore right hand Wednesday. Brown has had limited motion in his sore right shoulder and had further testing on it. Both players’ exam results will be available today.

McKie was diagnosed with disk irritation and inflammation in his back and will continue to be monitored by Lakers medical personnel.

There was one spot of good injury news for the team -- Brian Cook practiced despite sustaining a slightly sprained ankle when he came down on a ball during pre-game warmups Tuesday.

It wasn’t enough to tilt the rest of the franchise away from talk of injuries and extended recovery periods.

“It certainly puts a damper on things,” Rambis said.

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Coach Phil Jackson arrived at Wednesday’s practice and told the Lakers how well they played in Las Vegas, which, it turns out, wasn’t very well.

He lit into their mostly non-existent defense, told their guards they handled pressure defense poorly and kept saying they looked disorganized on the court.

Brown could hear the ruckus from the adjacent weight room, where he was getting rehab work on his shoulder.

“I know I heard him yelling about organization,” Brown said.

Said Rambis: “I don’t think they were kind words.”

Jackson is back on part-time duty but still has not addressed the media since undergoing hip-replacement surgery Oct. 3.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com