Pregame (11/27) notes

No real news from Phil Jackson's pregame media session, other than that Kwame Brown is making faster-than-expected progress in recovering from his ankle and knee injuries. There is no firm date, however, on when Brown will return.

Jackson touched on something that I also mentioned in today's Daily News article. Kobe Bryant was stone-cold from the field for three quarters Sunday against New Jersey, but he still took 16 shots. Meanwhile, Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom were hot and they only had 13 shots between them for the game. There's nothing new here. The idea of teammates standing around, watching Kobe -- or, perhaps, Kobe not passing enough -- has been a theme since the late 1990s.

``The other night, everybody shot the ball well except Kobe,'' Jackson said. ``One of the things we have to look at is our distribution of shots. If he's not shooting well, somebody has to pick up the slack.''

Seattle, which is 2-12, wouldn't figure to present a problem for the Lakers, but there is one potentially rough matchup. In Durant and Wilcox, the Sonics have two big, quick post players.

``It's a tough matchup,'' Jackson said. ``They have two power forwards, one at center and one at power forward, who run very well. Andrew (Bynum) is going to be challenged to get back on defense but he's going to have an advantage offensively.''

Check out www.dailynews.com/sports for quarter-by-quarter updates on tonight's game.