Bynum Gains Some Experience Quickly

SAN ANTONIO â€”  A mere two weeks ago, Andrew Bynum’s age was the running joke in the Laker locker room.

A good laugh came at his expense when a teammate replaced the chair in front of his locker with a small blue toddler’s chair that stood two feet tall.

Thirteen games into his NBA career, Bynum has had to grow up quickly.

This month, he became the youngest player to appear in an NBA game. A curiosity at the time, he has now become part of the Laker rotation, taking minutes that were earmarked for injured post players Kwame Brown and Slava Medvedenko.

Tuesday against the San Antonio Spurs, he found himself matched up a few times against his favorite player, Tim Duncan, and delivered the best game of a young career.

“I was a little nervous when I first came out there,� said Bynum, selected No. 10 overall in June. “I think I did all right. I had to guard him a couple times and he didn’t score.�

Bynum had six points, six rebounds and two blocked shots in 21 minutes, mixing some good with some bad.

He sent Spur guard Tony Parker sprawling after blocking his shot in the third quarter and got a piece of Duncan’s shot in the fourth quarter.

In the second quarter, he took a rebound over Duncan, no small feat on its own, but then missed an open dunk, committed a foul at the other end and was promptly removed by Coach Phil Jackson.

In the bigger picture, Bynum probably won’t be sent down to the Development League this season -- “I don’t think so,� he said -- but there remain daily lessons to be digested.

The most important one so far was when Tyson Chandler blocked his shot in the final minutes of a recent game against the Chicago Bulls. “That’s when I realized everybody’s just as big as I was,� Bynum said.

*

Jackson, back in San Antonio for the first time since Derek Fisher’s stunning shot in the 2004 Western Conference semifinals, took a brief trip down the memory boardwalk when asked about Game 5.

“I kept telling them we were going to win the ballgame during the course of the game,� Jackson said. “Duncan hit a bank shot, an outside shot that was almost a three, just to get it off to beat the buzzer, and I said, ‘We’re still going to win it.’

“I just remember the noise going from 25,000 decibels to nothing with one shot. And that was it.�

*

First Howard Stern, now Jackson. It will be announced today that the Laker coach, beginning next week and continuing through the remainder of the NBA season, will have a weekly show on Sirius Satellite Radio on Mondays at 3 p.m. Jackson will do the shows with New York broadcaster Ian Eagle. Stern begins doing a morning show Jan. 9.

*

Times staff writer Larry Stewart contributed to this report.