Bryant called ‘questionable to doubtful’ for the opener

The exhibition season has ended for the Lakers. Now the Kobe Bryant watch begins.

He did not suit up for the exhibition finale Thursday against Denver and was called “questionable to doubtful” by a team official for Tuesday’s season opener against Phoenix.

Bryant worked out individually on the court before the exhibition in Anaheim but watched the game, a 126-108 Lakers loss, from behind the team bench.

He has said he wants to play, but whether his knee will be fully recovered from off-season surgery is another question.

“I don’t know. We’ll see,” Bryant said Thursday. “I worked out really, really hard [Thursday]. We’ll see how it feels in the morning. This is the hardest workout I had. I ran about an hour straight, just doing line drills and things like that. Then I went and shot the ball. It was a little sore afterwards, a little sore now, but nothing major. The big thing is always the next day.”

The Lakers aren’t pressing him to play in the opener, or the next day against Golden State, keeping in mind the 82-game season.

“We as an organization, we’re not going to gamble and try to bring him back too early,” assistant coach Kurt Rambis said. “If he feels like that’s all the time that he needs and it responds well, and he goes out there and stresses it the way that it needs to be stressed to handle the rigors of playing an NBA game, and it doesn’t bother him the following day, he can make that decision.”

Bryant is entering his 11th NBA season. He has played 126 playoff games, the equivalent of another season and a half.

He has been known to be a quick healer in the past, although he is behind schedule in returning from mid-July arthroscopic surgery. He was expected to be back in eight to 12 weeks. Saturday marks the beginning of the 16th week.

Thus, the Lakers have been preparing for life without Bryant, just in case.

“In a lot of respects, without knowing it, that’s what we’ve been doing the entire training camp and preseason,” Rambis said. “We’ve been saying all along that we want the guys to learn how to play together. It’s going to be the easiest thing for Kobe to come in and assimilate himself.”

Maurice Evans has been starting at shooting guard in Bryant’s absence.

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Andrew Bynum continued to play well in the exhibition season, scoring 14 of his 23 points in the first quarter against Denver.

Bynum, who turns 19 today, showed polished moves in the post and made nine of 12 shots. He also had seven rebounds and five assists in 34 minutes.

“I think when [Bryant] gets back, we’ll be that much better,” Bynum said. “Up until then, I think we’ll start off pretty well. We’ve got a lot of home games to start with. We should go, like, 15-5, at the least.”

The Lakers finished 4-4 in exhibition play.

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The Lakers waived Von Wafer and rookie J.R. Pinnock, trimming their roster to 16. They need to be at 15 by Monday afternoon. Devin Green is the only other player with a non-guaranteed contract.

Wafer, a second-round pick last year, averaged 1.3 points in 17 games last season. He played only one exhibition game this month before being sidelined by a bruised heel.

Pinnock, a second-round selection out of George Washington, averaged 1.8 points in six exhibition games.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com