Brown Struggling With Shoulder Injury

<div class="quote_poster">Quote:</div><div class="quote_post">L SEGUNDO - All Lakers center Kwame Brown wanted to do entering this season was pick up where he left off in the spring, when he averaged 12.4 points and 8.6rebounds in 18 games after Chris Mihm was lost to a severe ankle sprain.

Those hopes ended when Brown suffered a shoulder injury in training camp. Just when he was hoping to establish himself as a starting center, Brown instead learned all the medical jargon associated with a bruised rotator cuff and bursitis.

He returned for Sunday's game against Memphis but will back up Andrew Bynum for the time being in what coach Phil Jackson envisions as a 20- to 24-minute nightly role.

After seeing the doctor Tuesday, Brown learned that he won't need surgery and can take anti-inflammatories to treat the pain in his trapezius muscle. But Brown offered a frank assessment Wednesday about the state of his shoulder going forward.

"I just think I'll have some good days and some bad days," Brown said. "You get a guy like (Shaquille O'Neal) and Yao (Ming) and the big guys in there, I'll probably struggle a little bit.

"I think I'm just going to have to focus on playing defense. I think at the offensive end, I'm going to struggle because it's painful to raise my arm sometimes when I'm going against guys. But I can still give them something."</div>

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