Sasha Vujacic — and his ankle — back in the mix for Lakers

Now that’s efficiency.

Apparently, the repairman was able to fix things on the Lakers “Machine” quite a bit ahead of schedule. Sasha Vujacic (ankle) returned to practice Monday morning, at least six days ahead of schedule and was able to complete almost the entire practice.

“I did take a little break, I don’t want to go too crazy,” Vujacic said. “But I didn’t feel any sharp pain, so that’s good. There was a little discomfort, which is normal. We’ll just have to see if it swells up. If it does, we have to slow it down. But it feels good now.”

Vujacic has been out most of training camp with a sprained ankle, which he suffered on the first day of camp. After the ankle was slow to heal, he was re-examined and an avulsion fracture — where a thin piece of bone is peeled away by a ligament or tendon — was discovered. At that point, he was projected to miss 10-14 days. That was just six days ago.

In between, Vujacic swam, rode the stationary bike, shot baskets after practice and lifted weights, clearly itchy to get back on the court as soon as possible. “My goal is to be ready for the first game (on Oct. 28),” he said. “And it’s going to take me two or three days of practice to come back into shape.”

In the offseason, the fifth-year guard from Slovenia signed a three-year, $15 million dollar extension with the Lakers. Last season, Vujacic averaged 8.8 points and led the Lakers in 3-point shooting percentage (43.7 percent).

Also: The Lakers waived free agent guard Brandon Heath, trimming their roster to 17. Per NBA rules, the roster must be cut to 15 players by Tuesday. In five preseason games with the Lakers, Heath averaged 1.4 points in 8.6 minutes.