"He can certainly give us minutes against either one of those teams," Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said. "More than likely I would put him right back in the starting lineup in that situation.
"I think we're pretty good with that lineup. We've done some good things during the course of the year, even in Andrew's comeback, we've had some good games from him out there."
Bynum averaged 17.3 points and 5.5 rebounds in the last four games of the regular season after returning from a torn medial collateral ligament in his right knee. Three of those games were against playoff teams -- Utah, Denver and Portland.
In five playoff games against Utah, however, he was seventh on the team in scoring and fifth in rebounding.
His teammates think it was just a one-series aberration.
"Andrew's a big piece of our team and I expect him to contribute a lot more than he was able to this series," Pau Gasol said. "I think the matchups didn't help for him to be out there."
Times staff writers Broderick Turner and Lisa Dillman contributed to this report.
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mike.bresnahan@latimes.com
