Amid pressure to play through a torn labrum in his right shoulder, Dwight Howard played in the Los Angeles Lakers' blowout loss to the Boston Celtics on Thursday, but there were still questions surrounding his return from teammates -- whether it was Kobe Bryant saying Wednesday that the Lakers couldn't wait on Howard to heal, to Mike D'Antoni claiming Howard had been cleared for a while now.

In Howard's mind, the support level from his team has been lacking.

"Hopefully they'll start supporting me the way they need to," Howard said. "Until then, I'm going to continue to do whatever I can to help our team win.

"I can't get involved with what they've been saying to the media. I understand they've been saying certain things, but I know my health. I haven't been cleared for weeks to play. This is my body, and I have to control my body and my future and my career. So I can't worry about anybody else."