Kwame Brown To Return Tuesday

EL SEGUNDO — After a month of training camp and almost two weeks of regular-season play, it finally happened Sunday for the Lakers:

All 15 players took the floor in practice.

Some were limited because of lingering injuries, and Coach Phil Jackson didn’t grade it as a terrific session. But he said seeing all of his players available was good.

Jackson ran his club through a grueling 2 1/2 hour workout mainly because the team won’t have another full practice until late next week. They will have a short session Monday before they leave for back-to-back games at San Antonio on Tuesday and Houston on Wednesday. They play host to Detroit on Friday.

Kwame Brown practiced with his right heel recovering from bursitis and said he will be available Tuesday. Sunday was his first workout after several days of rest.

“After a couple of days off, I just wanted to test it,” Brown said. “Jumping was a little bit of a problem, but running — I was OK.”

Brown is wearing a brace on the foot and said he might wear a second one to avoid an awkward running gait.

His return is timely as the Lakers face San Antonio’s Tim Duncan and Houston’s Yao Ming. Jackson prefers to start the 6-foot-11 Brown against bigger centers like Ming.

After acknowledging that the center situation would be complicated with Brown’s return, Jackson said “We’ll take a flier here at the start and see how it goes. We know Kwame’s got presence with certain centers in the league, and we rely on him so that we don’t have to help too much with double teams.”

Click here to read more

What will Kwame Brown bring to the team upon his return? What are your thoughts on the Lakers finally being fully healthy? Sound off in our CL.com Forums!