Andrew Bynum doesn’t want to miss it
The pain won’t go away until Andrew Bynum has surgery for a torn cartilage in his right knee this summer.
The swelling won’t go away until Bynum has the knee repaired after the season is over.
So for now, Bynum is gutting it out, doing his part on one good leg, refusing to sit out of the NBA Finals now that the Lakers are close to winning the NBA championship.
Bynum was back at it again Tuesday night, playing center for the Lakers, holding down his position with grit in helping the Lakers defeat the Boston Celtics, 91-84, in Game 3 at TD Garden.
“In the world of sports, it’s courageous to see a player get out there and do that,” Lakers General Manager Mitch Kupchak said. “Of course, there are a lot of people in this country that are very courageous that are not in sports. I don’t want to overplay it.
“But in what we do, it’s showing a lot of guts and a lot of maturity to go out there and try to play.”
Bynum had fluid drained out of his knee 10 days ago, but the swelling returned soon after.
So it has meant Bynum has to play in pain, to play with a swollen knee.
And he has been more than solid in all three games.
He had 10 points and six rebounds in Game 1 and 21 points, six rebounds and seven blocked shots in Game 2.
In Game 3, Bynum had nine points, 10 rebounds — five offensive —and one blocked shot in helping the Lakers reclaim home-court advantage and open a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series.
He had a scary moment in the third quarter.
Bynum was chasing down a loose ball when felt some pain in his knee. Later, he stopped “real hard and felt a twinge.”
That’s when he came out of the game with 4:49 left in the third quarter and wrapped his arm around Lakers trainer Gary Vitti.
Bynum came back in the game with 9:45 left.
He played a total of 4:05 in the fourth quarter.
Bynum didn’t score in the fourth, missing his only shot. But he had two rebounds and played big on defense for the Lakers.
“I think it’s just like quick movements, quick stops, certain things is when I feel it,” Bynum said. “Then it goes away, and it did.”
Kupchak said what Bynum has done in the playoffs is “part of the maturity process.”
Bynum was injured about 11/2 months ago, in Game 6 of the Western Conference first-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder.
He hasn’t missed a playoff game and doesn’t plan on missing one now.
Bynum will rest Wednesday, do his treatment and get prepared to play Game 4 on Thursday night here.
“Before the game, it’s going to be questionable for Thursday,” Bynum said. “There’s a lot of swelling in there because of a couple of little tweaks I got today. What I’m going to do is just attack it all day [Wednesday] and probably get three treatments in and be ready.”
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