Farmar hobbling

On an otherwise slow news day, it was revealed that backup guard Jordan Farmar has tendonitis in his right foot. He had been suffering from pain lately, so the Lakers sent him for a battery of tests, including an MRI exam. Dr. Phil Kwong examined Farmar. All the tests came back normal and the Lakers are calling Farmar day-to-day.

The pain is unlikely to keep him from playing in the Lakers' opening-round series against the Utah Jazz. It remains to be seen how much he plays, however. Lakers coach Phil Jackson has been using Shannon Brown, rather than Farmar, as the first guard off the bench in recent games. Brown could be the X-factor when it comes to checking Utah's Deron Williams. It's a matchup that bears monitoring when the series begins Sunday at Staples Center.

Here's Jackson on Williams and Brown: "Deron likes to run a shoulder into a guy and run him into the lane, push him where he wants him to go," he said. "He's very adept at that. Shannon has a chance. I'm not saying anybody's going to stop him, per se. It's going to take a team to do that."