LOS ANGELES, CA (Catholic Online) - Bryant will see some action in London, played limited minutes vs. Minnesota. The plan will be the same for the Lakers' game in Barcelona on Thursday.

Bryant's knee was operated on in late July for the third time since 2003. He had to have the knee drained in between Games 4 and 5 of L.A.'s first-round series against the Oklahoma City Thunder. Bryant claims that removing the excess fluid in the knee improved his health for the rest of the postseason.

"I drained my knee, and all of a sudden reeling off 30-point games like they're 10-point games and everybody said how young I looked," Bryant said. "I was hurt."

Bryant revealed the status of his injuries on Monday, even after having the knee drained.

"During the NBA Finals, it was extremely, extremely, extremely painful," Bryant said. "Now, not so much."

Lakers coach Phil Jackson told the Los Angeles Times over the weekend that he expects it to take the first two weeks of the regular season for the knee to continue to strengthen before Bryant is back in top form.

Bryant wore a protective sleeve over the knee and played only six minutes against Minnesota, missing his three shots to finish with zero points, two assists, one steal and one rebound after checking out for good midway through the first quarter.

Jackson said he had originally planned to play Bryant at the start the second half, but Bryant decided to "ice down" at halftime.

"A lot of people were calling for Kobe to go back in the ballgame," Jackson said. "We had plans to hopefully play him two segments, but one was enough."

"I wanted to get up [off the bench] and get in, but ... the shoes were unlaced, ice on the knees, knees were frozen and at that point I couldn't get back in," Bryant said. "But it felt good to still get out there and play and run around a little bit."