Los Angeles Lakers Will Struggle Without Bynum

The good news for the LA Lakers is that center Andrew Bynum will make a full recovery. The bad news is that it will take him at least eight weeks to do so. Bynum is averaging a double-double as the center for the Lakers and suffered a subluxation of the patella and a bone bruise of his left knee during Sunday night’s game against Memphis. His 10.2 rebounds led the team and his 13.1 points were third behind Kobe Bryant and Lamar Odem.

With rumors swirling that Kwame Brown will take over the starting spot the Lakers are automatically losing 5 points and 9 rebounds just in stats alone. Most importantly LA is losing a big physical body inside who takes up space and plays aggressive. While Brown is a big body and does take up space being described as physical and aggressive are easily debated but the Lakers have no other options.

"Unless Wilt [Chamberlain] comes back from the dead, I don't know what else we're going to do," Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said when discussing Brown. "He's going to have to handle the starting job."

The Lakers, who are 9-1 in their last 10 games, trail the Phoenix Suns by a half a game and have a 4.5 game lead on the Golden State Warriors. If there ever was a time to not give up any ground this would be it. However, without their big man I don’t see any way Los Angeles can avoid it.