<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">EL SEGUNDO - More than any player, Kobe Bryant understands the uphill climb Lakers center Chris Mihm is facing after suffering a severe right ankle sprain in the final minute of Sunday's loss to Seattle. After all, Bryant was sidelined a month with the same injury last season, missing 14 games, and answered a question Monday about what Mihm was going through before it could even be finished. "It was hell," Bryant said. The timing could not have been worse for the Lakers, who had avoided a significant injury all season until Sunday. There is no timetable for Mihm's return and no way of knowing how much losing one of their most consistent players will hurt the Lakers. Mihm was quietly having the best season of his career before the injury, averaging 10.4 points and 6.4 rebounds. The Lakers will play their first game without Mihm tonight at Sacramento, where the Kings have won their past 12 games at Arco Arena and have climbed to eighth in the Western Conference standings, a half-game behind the Lakers. "It is going to be a playoff game, a playoff-type atmosphere," forward Lamar Odom said. "We have a team that's right on our tails. They haven't lost a home game since Ron Artest has been there, so they're feeling good about themselves right now. We've got to defend our spot a little bit." The Lakers had issues to deal with on every front Monday, beginning with Mihm and his ankle. Kwame Brown will move back into the starting lineup and the Lakers will have to make do with rookies Andrew Bynum and Ronny Turiaf coming off the bench. Brown played well in recent games against Detroit's Rasheed Wallace and San Antonio's Tim Duncan, and coach Phil Jackson is eager to see whether he can play at the same level for an extended period. "Just looking to be consistent and step up on both ends of the court," Brown said. Even if Mihm is able to return as quickly as Bryant did last season, the Lakers are making no assumptions about his availability for the playoffs. Bryant thought back to where he was a month after his severe sprain last year and offered a painful perspective. "I was not even close to 100 percent. Nowhere close," Bryant said, later adding about the treatment process: "It almost becomes your life. You just have to rehabilitate it every single day, all day." </div> Source This is big loss for the Lakers. They need Bynum and/or Turiaf to step up the rest of the way.
Save Mihm for the playoffs. Look on the bright side, we get to see socks more and Jim Jackson. Is he still learning the triangle?
This is probably the third worst injury that could happen, after Kobe and Lamar. He's been our second most consistant player this season and he put up some decent numbers in the previous game. The bigs are going to need to step their game up, especially Kwame. I hope Bynum gets more minutes now, but I doubt he will. We could see Ronny playing around 20 minutes now with Kwame at the C. This final stretch looked as if would be done with comfort, it's look like it's going to be a battle now.
