Los Angeles Lakers center Andrew Bynum played his first game of the 2010-11 regular season Tuesday night in a 103-89 road win in Washington against the Wizards. Coming off the bench, Bynum played over 17 minutes, shooting just 1-of-5 for seven points, four rebounds, an assist and two blocks.

“I thought his first few minutes were good and then he tired after that…noticeable difference,” said Lakers coach Phil Jackson after the game. ” He gave us something that we needed at the time. We had both Lamar and Pau with two fouls.”

Jackson does not plan on forcing Bynum into unnecessary action. “I’ll try to work him out somewhat similar to what we did tonight, short minutes, relief minutes and see how he goes in the game.  I was ready to put him back in if we needed to tonight but that was a game in which we didn’t have to push it down the end.”

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Marc Berman of the New York Post reports:

The Knicks will hold their annual Legends Night Feb. 23 vs. Milwaukee and unveil the player of the past decade, with fans eligible to vote. Two years ago, Legends Night featured winners of the past five decades but left open the 2000’s — an atrocious period in Knick history.

On the ballot for this past decade is current assistant general manager Allan Houston, Latrell Sprewell, Marcus Camby, David Lee and Kurt Thomas. Houston is a strong favorite to win, but Sprewell could take the fan vote. The Knicks are assembling a panel to vote and the online fan vote counts as one panel member.

Fans can also select a second player of the decade from the 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, 1980’s and 1990’s and they, too will be honored. In 2009, the inaugural class of decade winners were: Carl Braun (1940’s), Richie Guerin (1950’s), Willis Reed (1960’s), Walt Frazier (1970’s), Bernard King (1980’s) and Patrick Ewing (1990’s).

Bob Cooney of the Philadelphia Daily News reports:

The Sixers have won five of their past seven games and aren’t even comparable to the team that started the season 3-13. The reasons have been many - better defense, Jodie Meeks, a slew of home games - but the biggest might be that coach Doug Collins has shortened his bench.

Benefiting from Collins’ decision are Thaddeus Young and Lou Williams. Suffering from it are Andres Nocioni, Evan Turner and Marreese Speights.

The reasoning is pretty plain and simple. Young and Williams have been terrific off the bench, both playing as well as anyone could have expected. Still, the coach agonizes over keeping his players happy.

“I’m as sensitive as anybody,” Collins said after yesterday’s practice at Philadelphia College of Osteopathic Medicine. “After the game is over, I always tell [assistant coaches] to make sure everyone is OK. I know what it’s all about. I try to stay on top of it as much as I can.”