Brian

Grant

Unless Grant starts looking better, he might also play about a quarter per game during the regular season.

These Lakers are still getting to know each other, so coach Rudy Tomjanovich hasn’t been able to pare his rotation down from 10-11 players into the 8-9 range. Grant could make an excellent sixth man, while we still like the all-around upside Walton brings.

Grant left Wednesday’s game in the fourth quarter after dislocating a finger on his right hand.

Grant is expected to play Friday.

Grant sat out Tuesday’s game with the injury and is day-to-day.

“I just hit a wall of a couple of minor injuries affecting major injuries,” said Grant. He will be replaced in the starting lineup by Malik Allen or Wang Zhi-Zhi. It’d be nice to see the Heat give the athletic Loren Woods a shot, but it doesn’t look like that will happen.

Grant, who has done a great job while defending Jamaal Magloire and Jermaine O’Neal in the playoffs, is expected to be ready for Game 3.

There is no cure for the chronic pain that Grant suffers, but he said the rest helped him enough to enable him “to go out there and do what I’ve got to do.’'

It’s unlikely that a deal will take place. The Mavs and Heat were close to a deal in February that would have shipped Nick Van Exel to Miami and sent Grant to Dallas, but the Mavericks are no longer offering Van Exel.

Coach Stan Van Gundy is asking Grant to take more shots instead of passing them up. He averaged 15.2 points his first season in Miami but has become a more hesitant shooter since then.