UPDATE 7:44 pm: Andrew Bynum is out warming up with the team and is going to start Game 4 for the Lakers.
However, there are questions within the Lakers staff and locker room about how long he can go and how effective he can be. The Celtics may want to expose him and attack, although Kendrick Perkins may not be the best guy to do that.
3:01 pm: Andrew Bynum has just played through the torn meniscus in his right knee so far, but that may be changing for Game 4.
Bynum tweaked his knee in Game 3 and said it felt worse afterwards, but that he would continue to play through it. Phil Jackson said he would play Game 4 that night.
Today, different story tweets Mike Bresnahan of the LA Times:
Winds of change this morning regarding Andrew Bynum, whose knee is hurting. Will he play tonight? “I’m not positive about that,” Phil J said
The situation is what it always has been — a matter of pain management. Bynum’s knee is not getting better until he has surgery this off-season. But he couldn’t make his knee a lot worse by playing, so he kept on playing through the pain. But a little larger tear would lead to more pain, and he said it was bothering him after tweaking it in Game 3.
Bynum has been key to the Lakers — he forces the physical Kendrick Perkins off Pau Gasol. Bynum has gotten his share of points and rebounds, holding his own with his big body. However, Gasol has been the better of Kevin Garnett this series (who has his own knee and physical issues).
If it is Perkins back on Gasol and Garnett on Lamar Odom — just like in 2008 — it is advantage Celtics.
