NBA

D’Antoni ‘to try’ and make Lakers debut Tuesday vs. Nets

EL SEGUNDO, Calif. — Mike D’Antoni intends to makes his Lakers coaching debut against the Nets on Tuesday. Maybe. Hopefully. Possibly.

“I’m going to try,” D’Antoni said today after practice. “We’ll see. We’ll talk to Gary (Pitti, athletic trainer) tomorrow and see how it goes.”

D’Antoni had hoped to coach Sunday against Houston, but was overruled by the Lakers’ medical staff hours before game time.

“Sunday, I tried, but it didn’t work out,” D’Antoni said. “I don’t want to say yeah, and then don’t do it again.”

The former Knicks coach, who was hired to replace Mike Brown last Monday, is recovering from knee replacement surgery. Among the reasons cited by doctors for holding out D’Antoni are him being so close to the action on the sideline and general post-operation fatigue.