Bynum’s Back! (Well, almost)

After suffering a knee injury last January, Andrew Bynum is back on the court. The Lakers’ center received a standing ovation at Tuesday’s exhibition opener as he walked out to the theme of “Welcome Back, Kotter” blaring on the loud speaker. Although the Lakers lost 99-90 to Utah at the exhibition, Bynum showed some promise his first time back on the court in a 15-point, eight-rebounded effort at the Honda Center. This was the first game for Bynum since January and although he backed down Mehmet Okur, pinned Paul Millsap down (on the way to converting a three-point play) and dunked off a feed from Derek Fisher, the center also had two blocked shots and four turnovers in 24 minutes.

Lakers’ assistant coach Kurt Rambis told the L.A. Times that Bynum showed both “some really good things” and “some things that he definitely needs to improve upon.” Of the tings Bynum could use some work on are anchoring the defense and running the floor to both ends, according to Rambis. The starters for the exhibition were Fisher, Bryant, Gasol, Odom and Ariza, with Bynum as backup, but he didn’t mind coming off the bench, telling the Times, “I really just want to start the real season and get back to it.”

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