Jackson Has a Little Chat With Brown

It was time, Phil Jackson decided, to meet with Kwame Brown.

It involved some Q-and-A, some give and take and a Ben Wallace comparison ... sort of.

The highlight: Brown, averaging 5.8 points and 5.9 rebounds, was asked what he thought about Wallace’s game in which the Detroit center had no points but 17 rebounds, four steals and three blocked shots in a 90-74 victory over Minnesota.

Brown’s response, as told by Jackson: I’d rather score more than that.

Jackson’s response, as told by Jackson: Don’t think so.

“He knows what he should focus on,” Jackson said Saturday, indicating many areas, none of which were scoring.

“In basketball, there’s only a couple players that have the latitude to be everything, to be able to handle the ball, to be able to take the shots they want to take,” he said. “The ones that don’t have great performance history, they have to shorten their game down until they find an ability somewhere to expand it. Until he has some success in the shortened version, then he’ll find a way to expand the other area of his game, which will give him more latitude.”

Brown had an expansive game Saturday against Memphis: 18 points, matching his season high, and eight rebounds before fouling out with 52.5 seconds to play. He was six for six from the field and also made all six of his free throws.

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Center Chris Mihm sat out a fourth consecutive game because of a sprained shoulder but said he hoped to play Monday against Utah. ... Rookie Ronny Turiaf did not play Saturday after getting a minute of playing time against Houston.