Phil Jackson: Andrew Bynum likely a month away

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The date of center Andrew Bynum‘s return to the Lakers’ lineup after tearing his right medial collateral ligament on Jan. 31 continues to be a moving target.

Coach Phil Jackson said Thursday that Bynum is ‘still like a month away from being a player,’ which isn’t what the Lakers had been hoping for. Bynum said last Sunday that he definitely would be back this season, but another month’s recovery would put him between the end of the regular season and the start of the playoffs.

Jackson’s comments came in response to a pregame question about whether Bynum might return to the lineup after the Lakers’ upcoming seven-game trip, and how vital it would be for Bynum to get some tuneup games in before the playoffs.

‘It’s about what we can do. It’s not about how important it is. It’s what we’re going to be able to do,’ Jackson said. ‘We’re really not looking at that as a possibility.’

Jackson had been telling reporters not to ask him about Bynum yet, and to wait until April. But he broke that rule Thursday to indicate that Bynum’s return will have to wait until the playoffs.

‘If he had to do that in the postseason, we’ll just have to do it,’ Jackson said. ‘That’s just part of it.’

Pressed about whether a month is a best-case scenario, Jackson said that would be ‘that he plays first week in April. But from the progression, on the pace he’s been going at this point, it’s really hard to see him, in two weeks, all of a sudden being ready to be back.’

More later at www.latimes.com/sports

-- Helene Elliott