Walton, Brown may be back within week

After winning Monday night in Utah, no small feat by itself, the Lakers returned to practice Tuesday and found two more victories awaiting them.

Forward Luke Walton and center Kwame Brown practiced for the first time since suffering sprained ankles, playing full-court four-on-four and also half-court four-on-four at the team’s training facility.

Their return is soon, but still slightly difficult to pinpoint. The Lakers’ next game is Friday against Sacramento, leaving two more practices to evaluate both players.

“There’s a lot still left to be seen this week,” Coach Phil Jackson said. “[We] just don’t even know what we’d list them -- as doubtful, questionable or where we go as far as that goes.”

Walton has sat out 15 games because of a moderately sprained right ankle, but is probably a little ahead of Brown, who has been sidelined 27 games because of a severely sprained left ankle.

Brown felt fine during the half-court portion, but still felt some pain while running in the full-court game. He pictured himself coming back next Tuesday against Minnesota, two days after the Lakers play the run-and-gun Phoenix Suns.

“Maybe after Phoenix,” he said. “I don’t want to go back into the Indy 500.”

Walton hopes to play Friday, although it might be a little ambitious on his part. It still hurts when he drives hard to his right or comes to a quick stop.

For both players, it’s about regaining their timing and conditioning.

“I felt like a fat, unathletic kid out there today,” Walton said. “I tried to make a move and I would almost fall forward.”

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Lamar Odom can relate to what Brown and Walton are going through.

He’s finally emerging from a quiet 15-game return from a sprained knee, breaking through Monday with a 19-point, 14-rebound, nine-assist effort against Utah. He seemed more assertive around the basket and Jackson said he looked more balanced when going up for jump shots.

Jackson noticed other subtleties.

“There’s a sequence where he got an offensive rebound, missed it and went right back up and dunked it,” Jackson said. “That told me something right there, that he’s starting to feel more like himself, that he can go right back up with a kind of double effort. That says that his body physically is recovering.”

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Andrew Bynum did not practice Tuesday because of flu-like symptoms, and Kobe Bryant also sat out.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com