Madsen’s Recovery Ahead of Schedule

The Lakers are having a deferred kind of preseason, with Phil Jackson, Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant having spent only three days of practices together, but their injured list is dwindling.

Mark Madsen, who underwent off-season surgery on his left wrist, has been cleared to return to practice next week, about two weeks ahead of schedule.

“The doc [hand specialist Norman Zemel] said it’s looking extremely well and next week, I’ll be able to get out there full out,” Madsen said. “I’m excited. I can’t believe it’s happening this quick.

“We were anticipating that at four months [after the surgery], that I was going be able to go out there and play full contact, but now, at 31/2. ... I mean, [it seems] like it was Christmas Day yesterday.”

Madsen hopes he’ll be ready by the Oct. 30 opener, although Jackson says he won’t rush him into action.

Last season, Jackson used the gung-ho Madsen, who’s only 6 feet 8 and was a rookie, to boot, as the backup center, but the team has added several more players, including Samaki Walker, Dickey Simpkins and Jelani McCoy.

“I’m just going to let him [Madsen] play,” said Jackson. “ ... He has maybe 10%-20% inflexibility with that hand, both back and forward. As a consequence, that’s really going to limit his ability right off the bat.

“We’ll see if he’s ready to play or not. That’s basically it. If he’s not ready to play, we have quality guys that we can put in there and we won’t force him into the action. Knowing Mark, he’s going to be in great shape and enthusiastic and he’ll make up for whatever he can’t do physically with that hand. ...

“Right now we’ve got pretty good players but we don’t have anybody with that ... energizing factor that he has.”

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Derek Fisher, who underwent off-season surgery on his right foot, is expected back in the lineup as early as late November, although it could be early December.

“Thanksgiving would be probably as early as we can think of him being ready to play,” Jackson said. “Even that short-changes him a little bit on practice time.”