Brown Back on Court

Kwame Brown played in a game, 22 days after suffering a hamstring injury and about eight days too late for Phil Jackson’s liking, but he was part of Saturday’s game nonetheless.

Brown had two points and no rebounds in 13 minutes against the Minnesota Timberwolves. He aggravated his right hamstring while being fouled by Anthony Carter early in the fourth quarter, left for a few minutes, and came back.

“My hamstring got a little fatigued at the end, and I started limping a bit,” said Brown, who came into the game averaging 5.9 points and 6.2 rebounds. “It didn’t help playing against someone like Kevin [Garnett]. He’ll let you know if you’re ready or not. He’s one of the quickest guys in the league.”

Brown said he was only about 80% healthy, but his return was necessary Saturday because of Garnett’s inside presence, Jackson said.

“We need the backup,” Jackson said. “Last game we played against Minnesota, we had our two big guys in foul trouble and Andrew [Bynum] had to come out and play Garnett ... “

Rookie Von Wafer was put on the inactive list to make room for Brown.

-- Mike Bresnahan