Mike D’Antoni can’t say if he’ll make his Lakers coaching debut Tuesday

Mike D’Antoni couldn’t, or wouldn’t, say whether he would be on the bench for the Lakers’ game Tuesday against the Brooklyn Nets at Staples Center. He said Monday he didn’t want a repeat of Sunday when he said he hoped he would make his Lakers coaching debut, but couldn’t do it.

D’Antoni spent the second consecutive game in the Lakers’ locker room, watching them play on TV while having physical therapy on his newly replaced knee joint. The Lakers defeated the Houston Rockets two nights after beating the Phoenix Suns.

“I’m going to try,” D’Antoni said. “We’ll see. We’ll talk to Gary tomorrow and see how it goes. Sunday I said I would and it didn’t work out. I don’t want to say, yeah, and have it not work out again. We’ll just see. It’s a lot better. Every day it gets 10 points better. Hopefully, I’ll be ready to go.”

D’Antoni referred to Gary Vitti, the Lakers’ athletic trainer.