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No real surprise, but Kobe Bryant will sit out tonight's game against the Spurs at Staples thanks to tenosynovitis (inflammation to you and me) in his left shin. It'll be his sixth straight game on the sidelines, and the second he's missed against San Antonio. Fortunately, I believe he owns at least six suits.

Mike Brown said this afternoon at shootaround that Bryant has started on-court work, including a little one-on-one. The idea is still to have him play before the end of the regular season -- during Sunday's TV broadcast Bryant told ESPN's Heather Cox he would -- but Brown wouldn't put a timetable on it.

ESPNLA's Dave McMenamin has the news here.

It didn't go very well Saturday in Phoenix, but Monday against the New Orleans Hornets the Los Angeles Lakers will get another crack at playing without Kobe Bryant. He'll miss a second consecutive game thanks to tenosynovitis (in lay terms, a really sore and inflamed tendon) of his left shin.

Devin Ebanks, who played well against the Suns scoring 12 points and hauling down four offensive boards, will probably get another start.

It's easy to overreact to a missed game here and there. This may not be one of those times. As we've seen all season, the Lakers take the floor every night with a small margin for error. When everything is working, their top-end talent -- headlined by Bryant, Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and now Ramon Sessions -- is good enough to play with anyone. When the formula isn't working, whether because someone is having an off night, gets tossed from a game, doesn't bring the energy or is hurt, the Lakers are diminished significantly.

Kobe's injury is the type that only heals with rest, so he, Mike Brown and the Lakers' training staff are all smart to sit him down Monday night, and for however long he needs to feel better. The Lakers aren't going to win all that much in the playoffs without Bryant available and healthy. Sitting for a week won't just help his shin, but it could have larger benefits, too. But Kobe's injury points to other problems the Lakers have right now. He's beat up, Sessions has a bad shoulder, Gasol has played a ton of minutes and has his own bumps and bruises, Bynum is running on a squishy ankle.

In short, the Lakers have leaned heavily on their three marquee players throughout the season, and with the playoffs only nine games away, could very well be seeing the negative impact. For them, any drop at the top of the roster has a disproportionately negative effect, because the rest of the roster offers so little.

Defensively, they've been terrible -- punctuated by Saturday's disaster -- something that has to change in a hurry. Some of the drop can be attributed to pace. As the Lakers have learned to score more effectively, they've added possessions to games and put themselves in transition defensively more often, in which on a points-per-play basis Synergy says they're 25th in the league. Bynum's interest in defense seems to have waned, which makes a huge difference in the half court (where, for what it's worth, via Synergy, they've slipped from second to fourth in points per play).

There are reasonable questions about commitment and buy in. Certainly through the early weeks of the season, when the Lakers treated every defensive possession like some sort of death match, the effort seemed more consistent. There was more of a sense of urgency, now lacking. Maybe that can still change. But Bryant's injury, packed in with the other injuries, the big minutes, the team's lack of depth and everything else, raises a scarier proposition, namely that when the time comes for the Lakers to again raise their level, it won't happen.

Not because they're unable, but because there isn't enough in the system to make it happen.

Dave McMenamin has the news out of this afternoon's shootaround:

"...[Kobe] Bryant passed a neurological exam, a baseline test for concussion management as well as a stationary bike test and treadmill test while visiting with Dr. Vern Williams before heading to the Lakers' practice facility to participate in an on-court test consisting of a game of 2-on-2, monitored by the Lakers' training staff. If Bryant passes the full-contact basketball test and remains symptom-free, he could play in the Lakers' game Wednesday night against the Minnesota Timberwolves at Staples Center.

Good news, for sure. As for the broken nose, Bryant has been fitted with a protective mask, and if cleared to play will test it out before the game then decide if he wants to wear it.

An examination following Sunday's All-Star Game, revealed Kobe Bryant suffered a nasal fracture in the third quarter after a foul from Miami's Dwyane Wade. Tuesday, Bryant was also diagnosed with a concussion, and under the terms of the NBA's new protocol for concussions and other head injuries, Bryant will have to satisfy a strict set of criteria before being allowed back on the floor.

After speaking with a source familiar with the league's policy, here are few things to know:

• As part of the policy, during the preseason every player in the NBA undergoes baseline neurological testing.
• If a player is diagnosed with a concussion, he's no longer allowed to play until cleared in consultation with the NBA's director of the concussion program, Dr. Jeffrey Kutcher, an associate professor of neurology at the University of Michigan.
• To gain clearance, a player must return to his symptom free neurological baseline, then complete a series of exertion tests, each growing in difficulty (from a stationary bike to jogging, to agility and individual basketball drills) remaining free of symptoms after each test.
• There is no set amount of time that must pass between each exertion exercise. Testing is situation specific, and relies on the medical judgment of the doctors and other medical personnel involved.

Obviously this isn't an instant process, and it's one the NBA (and the Lakers, as I was told by a team spokesman) takes very seriously. Bryant will be re-evaluated Wednesday, but there's certainly a very good chance he misses that night's game against Minnesota.

More to come tomorrow following shootaround.

Not to impugn the importance of ears, noses, and throats, for a handy trio they make, but brain trumps all three. So when Kobe Bryant was sent Tuesday from an ear, nose, and throat specialist to a neurologist for an MRI, it seemed a little worrisome. Following practice in El Segundo this afternoon, the Lakers said in a statement the 16-year veteran had in fact suffered not just a nasal fracture in Sunday's All-Star Game, but a concussion as well following a hard third-quarter foul from Miami's Dwyane Wade.

Kobe will be re-evaluated ahead of Wednesday's game against the Timberwolves at Staples, at which point his availability can be determined. In a move that may or may not be related, the Lakers recalled Devin Ebanks from the D-League. He was at practice this afternoon, and could be active tomorrow.

Interestingly, the NBA adopted a new policy this year regarding concussions, creating a protocol determining when a player can return to action after suffering a head injury. Players now must be symptom free, then successfully complete a series of physical tests of increasing difficulty (stationary bike, jogging, agility work, non-contact team drills) while avoiding the return of symptoms. From there, the NBA's neurologist leading the program must be consulted before the player can return to the floor.

How all this impacts Kobe's timeline is something I don't yet know, though missing Wednesday's game certainly is a possibility. The protocol for clearance takes time.

Nobody doubts Bryant would play with a broken nose, but obviously concussions are an entirely different issue requiring far more caution. Hopefully his is mild and the doctor declares him good to go tomorrow, but the Lakers and Bryant would be wise to play this one very, very safe. Beyond the big picture issues of Bryant's overall well being, the last thing they need is for symptoms to linger.

Meanwhile, this will certainly add another layer of intrigue to Sunday's game against the Heat.

Sunday was a busy one for Kobe Bryant. First, fueled by a red hot start -- he'd finish with 27 points as the Western Conference held on against a furious rally from the East -- Kobe passed three legends on the all-time list for All-Star Game scoring: Oscar Robertson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, and with a fast break dunk just past the seven minute mark of the third quarter, Michael Jordan.

Not a bad evening's work.

While eclipsing M.J. is certainly a big story, the points Kobe needed to tie him were potentially more impactful. They came on free throws following a hard-particularly-for-the-All-Star Game foul across the bridge of his nose from Dwyane Wade on the left baseline. It drew blood and like every pop to the nose, looked pretty painful. Bryant was able to stay in the game, and showed no ill-effects down the stretch as he admonished Miami's LeBron James for passing on shots that could have tied the game.

After, though, he left for evaluation before speaking with the media. A CT scan revealed a nasal fracture. He'll be evaluated again today in L.A. by ear, nose and throat specialist Dr. John Rehm.

The Lakers don't play until Wednesday, when Minnesota comes to town. There's currently nothing to suggest Bryant won't play. Similar injuries have forced some players to wear a mask, and I suppose that's possible here, depending on the severity of the break. I'm sure we'll know more after the follow up appointment.

In other ASG news, as expected Andrew Bynum played very short minutes after receiving a Synvisc injection in his surgically repaired right knee. The procedure, designed to add some lubrication to the joint, isn't expected to keep Bynum from missing any time.

Per Dave McMenamin, Steve Blake was medically cleared to participate in Wednesday's practice and will be a game-time decision for Thursday's game against the Celtics. A return to action basically coincides with the timetable for recovery from a fracture near his ribs.

"I've just been patient with it, trying to let it heal," Blake said during Wednesday's practice. "I really had no preconception of when I was coming back. I didn't know if it was going to be sooner or later. I really had no idea. To me, it's on time...[Practice] felt good. My rhythm is a little off, but that will come with time. Hopefully whenever I do play, I'll be ready to play and able to contribute."

Obviously, Blake's potential availability is a big deal. Not that the bench ran like a Swiss watch with him in the lineup, but he was nonetheless the best second unit play-maker, and by a long shot. That the reserves have struggled to do much in Blake's absence beyond feed the ball to Andrew Bynum or watch Andrew Goudelock generate his own looks is no coincidence, nor terribly surprising. With Blake back, the second unit offense will hopefully run a little smoother, and he'll hopefully add a few buckets to the mix.

In the meantime, I assume Goudelock will assume two-guard duties, allowing him to operate more of a pure scorer, rather than outside his comfort zone as a quasi-point guard. I also imagine Mike Brown will give more minutes to Goudelock than Jason Kapono as a reserve shooting guard, which will hopefully help limit Kobe Bryant minutes. For that matter, Blake on hand should also mean equal Derek Fisher's minutes reduced, which wouldn't be the worst thing in the world. Blake and Fisher can also finish games together with Kobe at small forward in games where Metta World Peace and Matt Barnes aren't offering much, which has been too often these days.

Considering the glaring limitations of the Lakers roster, any options gained are a welcome development.

Here are your 10 additional things to take away from the Lakers' 93-89 road win against the Denver Nuggets on Friday ...

Every game on this Lakers trip figured to be important, what with the purple and gold embarking on this six-game challenge with a measly 2-7 road record and an overall record that would place them in the bottom half of teams to make the postseason if the playoffs started today.

And so the fourth quarter of the tip-off game for the trip became a battle of will, as the Lakers ignored their 3-7 record in the last 10 games at Pepsi Center and were the last team standing against one of the squads that rests above them in the standings.

"It’s good to get a win. We just kind of found a way to grind it out, stick with it; we relied on our defense, and defense got us a win in a tough environment," said Lakers coach Mike Brown. "I give my guys credit for finding a way to win."

The Lakers saw their eight-point lead with 7:10 remaining dwindle to just one less than three minutes later, but they never fell behind.

As ugly as it looked, L.A. outrebounded 14-7 in the final frame, including hauling in three offensive rebounds to the Nuggets' zero. Coming into the trip, Kobe Bryant called the offensive glass the Lakers' Achilles' heel.

"You got to go get the ball. You got to go get the ball," Bryant said. "We’re not shooting the ball particularly well from 3, so as a result, we got to go crash the glass. We’re a pretty good offensive rebounding team when we put our minds to it."

The road continues with tough games in Utah, Philadelphia and Boston and ends in New York and Toronto. The Lakers' Grammy trip has been a litmus test in years past. When they went a combined 6-14 from 2004 to 2007, nobody deemed them a championship contender. When they went 18-5 from 2007 to 2010, they made it to three straight NBA Finals.

The season hardly started out the way the Lakers had planned, but if the Denver win sparks a successful road trip, the season really takes on another tone.

"I keep telling everybody we’re going to be fine," Bryant said. "This is the start of the year and it’s tough to kind of get out on the road. We had some very tough opponents to start the season with on the road. It’s kind of getting used to everything with no practices. We’re going to be A-OK."

After a win like Friday, it's easier to believe him.

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Dave McMenamin has the news.

Bottom line, the Lakers get some much needed help in the frontcourt behind Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum. Gasol particularly piled up minutes in games against Phoenix and Utah without Josh McRoberts and Troy Murphy available, so I'm sure he'll be excited to see them back.

Jason Kapono, who had been with his wife following the birth of twin daughters, will also be in uniform.

Steve Blake's absence -- he's not expected to play Saturday against the Clippers, either -- puts pressure on Derek Fisher, likely to get more minutes, and means a promotion for rookie Darius Morris, who played for the first time this season Wednesday in Salt Lake City. I don't think I'm revealing state secrets when I say the Lakers don't exactly have a wealth of depth at the point, so losing Blake even for a few games hurts.

Hopefully it's not much longer than that, because the guy likely to pick up at least some of the slack in ball handling and facilitiating is Kobe Bryant. He's more than capable, obviously, but has a pretty full dance card already.

More specifically, a costochondral fracture (a fracture of the cartlilage connecting the rib to the sternum say the Lakers, for those who haven't finished each season of their "House, M.D." DVD collection).

Blake originally suffered the injury Tuesday against Phoenix, then aggravated it in the third quarter last night in Salt Lake City against the Jazz. He didn't return, and will be re-evaluated in the next couple days, but it's reasonable to believe his availability for Friday's game against Cleveland, then Saturday vs. the Clippers is murky.

Obviously I can't say with certainty it's the same thing, but in my glory years I had a rib cartilage injury that sounds awfully similar, and in my case at least it was almost comically painful. There's a reason Blake looked like he wanted to lie down and die last night on the tv broadcast. Later, he told ESPNLA's Dave McMenamin basic things like breathing and laughing brought the hurt.

(Meaning if you see Blake on the street, don't lead him up steep hills and keep those witty one-liners to yourself.)

By now we all know the Lakers aren't rich with high end point guards, so losing any depth there hurts. It's all relative, but Blake has been the team's most consistent point producer at the 1, showing far more comfort in Mike Brown's offensive system than he did in the triangle. He'd also playing substantial minutes, over 24 a night, including key stretches late in games. Missing games means likely means more time for Derek Fisher, and presses Darius Morris into service.

I'm a fan of Morris' long term potential, but as we saw Wednesday putting him on the floor means a wide variety of results. Some good (penetration, more quickness,etc.), some bad (tendency to dribble too much and to places he shouldn't go, slower decision making due to lack of experience, and so on), but almost all unpredictable. If there's anything the Lakers don't need offensively, it's another injection of unpredictability. Fisher meanwhile, at least through 12 games, has offensively been the wrong kind of predictable.

Hopefully Blake is able to return soon. Otherwise, the lack of depth with which L.A. entered the season, already problematic, just got worse, likely adding more to Kobe Bryant's plate.

Which is fine, because he's not really doing any heavy lifting these days, right?

With the New York media in town, Kobe Bryant made a rare pregame appearance before the media Thursday night, covering a fair amount of ground over six-plus minutes. Among the highlights:

• Bryant again showed support for Mike Brown. "We all want to win for him, because you see how hard he's working."
• On whether it's too early to say if this team can or can't win a title: "It's hard to tell. We've got to wait until we get everybody back, and then see what that looks like. I think Pau will feel like he has more space to operate, because he won't have to deal with guys that outweigh him by a great deal. I think Bynum will free up a lot for him."
• Is he worried about it? "Not really."
• He called his knee "As close to 100 percent as it's going to get... I'm 95 percent better. Just not going to say 100."
• He talked about steering Yankees star Alex Rodriguez towards same knee therapy Bryant underwent last summer. Is he happy A-Rod decided to do it? "As a Yankee fan, hell yeah. Absolutely."
• On using more cutting edge therapies: "[You do it] if it makes sense. You can't just try something just to try it. It has to make sense. It has to be something that you can back with research and study and things like that."
• On learning about the option: "It's my job to know these things... You have people that you pay to know these things, that you keep around you to know these things. You sit them all down, talk to them, listen to their opinion, listen to the facts, the research, and then you make a decision."

With Andrew Bynum sitting the third game of a league-mandated four-game suspension and the franchise facing its first 0-3 start since disco ruled the world, the Lakers can't afford to go down another big heading into tonight's game against Utah.

Fortunately, they should take the floor reasonably whole.

Forward Josh McRoberts, nursing a sprain to his left thumb suffered on Christmas against Chicago, left Monday's loss in Sacramento at the 8:15 mark of the third quarter with a sprained left big toe and didn't return, but is expected to suit up against the Jazz. Starting at center in Bynum's absence, Pau Gasol wore a large pad on his right shoulder Monday protecting his own Christmas sprain, but suffered no additional damage and is also expected to play.

At Tuesday's shootaround, Mike Brown explained how losing McRoberts on Monday night put the team in a bind, forcing him to play Metta World Peace at power forward after Luke Walton was, in Brown's estimation, "laboring a little."

It was hardly an ideal setup.

"Metta has not had an opportunity to get a rep at the four in over 2 1/2 weeks. The first day or two, we started to give him some reps at the power forward spot, but I didn't like it at the time," he said. "I didn’t want him trying to learn two positions. He did not have another opportunity since about the first or second day of training camp to get reps at that power forward position."

With McRoberts available, World Peace can try to build on a strong performance against Sacramento from his reserve small forward spot. Gasol, meanwhile, is still looking for a true breakout game, though upon further review Brown had good things to say about his performance last night.

"He did a terrific job, going back and watching the tape, of facilitating. We played through him a lot, especially in the second half on the post, where he might not have scored, but man he made some very good passes to his teammates from that post up position," he said.

I asked if, with Bynum still out, Brown wants Gasol to be more "selfish," calling his own number more. “If he was I’d be OK with it, because he’s very skilled. But because he’s playing the way that he is, a lot of the passes that he made were set-up passes. Guys got some very easy looks from it, so I’m OK with that," he said.

"When I was in Cleveland, people asked me that about LeBron all the time. But when a guy is making the game easier for his teammates, you’ve got to be OK with that. Other guys will step up."

Wednesday night, Derek Fisher suggested Kobe Bryant would probably hack off his injured right wrist and play left-handed if it meant getting on the floor for Sunday's opener against Chicago. Friday afternoon, Bryant practiced and declared himself fit. Even better, there wasn't a saw anywhere in sight.

Bryant said the torn lunotriquetral ligament, suffered in Monday's exhibition loss to the Clippers, is painful and has forced some "subtle" measures to compensate, but ultimately he's just trying to forget about it. Neither coach Mike Brown nor Bryant's teammates noticed anything different about him this afternoon, so apparently Kobe is doing fine in that regard.

That Bryant is taking the floor will shock ... nobody. The big question, as it generally is with Kobe, isn't about "if" but "should." Is Bryant doing the smart thing by suiting up?

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Dr. Robert Klapper, chief of orthopedics at Cedars-Sinai Medical Group (and co-host of the Weekend Warrior Show), joined Max Kellerman and Marcellus Wiley on 710 radio this afternoon, breaking down the injury to Kobe Bryant's wrist.

Listen here for all the details, but here are a few helpful nuggets:

• "Lunotriquetral" represents the different bones in the wrist. "These are tiny ligaments that keep the multiple bones in your wrist together, so you have movement as well as stability," Klapper says.
• "You usually don't have to operate on them, but it means that you need to let them rest so you can heal."
• Hands and wrists, Klapper says, heal faster than an ankle fracture, for example. He notes that the length of Kobe's absence depends on the specific diagnosis. How severe is the tear? Recovery time could be a month, it could be less. Bryant really could be day-to-day if the tear is "microscopic." God is in the details.
• Interestingly enough, Klapper says anti-inflammatory medicines "have been shown to delay the healing." Meanwhile, Vitamin C helps speed healing (and as an added benefit, staves off scurvy, should Bryant take up pirating in his spare time).

Much more information needs to come out on the injury before people know exactly how hard to hit the panic button, but needless to say the day's events don't do much to clear the stormy clouds forming around the 2011-12 season for the Lakers.

Per the Lakers' media relations folks:

EL SEGUNDO -- Los Angeles Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, who suffered a right wrist injury in Monday night’s game against the Clippers, was examined today by Dr. Steven Shin of the Kerlan-Jobe Orthopaedic Clinic and underwent an MRI exam. Results show that Bryant has a torn lunotriquetral ligament.

Bryant will not play in tonight’s game against the Clippers and his status is day-to-day.

I don't know exactly what a lunotriquetral ligament is. Frankly, I don't even know how to pronounce "lunotriquetral." But a torn "pick any ligament" is never a good thing. The injury, by the way, happened when Kobe took a tumble after getting blocked at the rim by DeAndre Jordan early in the second half. That Kobe continued to play deep into the fourth quarter of a preseason game, wrist injured and outcome already decided, raises the question of whether he should have been on the floor in the first place. As someone who expressed his displeasure at Phil Jackson's tendency to play starters in similar situations, I certainly get that. But in this case, I have no issue with Mike Brown.

Phil used to do this stuff, from everything I've gathered, as a means of maintaining momentum or sending a message, neither a good enough reason to risk injury, in my humble opinion. Brown, however, has two preseason games and a shortened training camp to teach new offensive and defensive systems, figure out floor combinations, develop chemistry and condition his players. Thus, Kobe's time on the floor, even while injured, contained tangible purpose. The setting may not have been ideal, and I wouldn't have blamed Brown if he took the precautionary route with Bryant, but I don't think he deserves any criticism in this case.

It'll be interesting to see how Kobe approaches this injury. He famously grits his teeth through nearly any injury known to mankind, having played with an aching ankle, knee, back and neck, plus that permanently screwed up pinkie. Depending on the severity of the injury (that information is unknown as of now), perhaps this will be present the latest chapter of Kobe gutting it out through pain.

However, this might not be pretty. Kobe's fondness of left-handed shots acknowledged, he's gonna need that right wrist to remain as effective a scorer. And beyond whatever shooting issues could be caused, when you factor in a right hand that's already problematic at times, Kobe's handle in general could be greatly compromised. Whether creating for himself or others, I wouldn't be surprised to see him struggle.

Plus, playing through this injury prevents the healing process from taking effect.

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