Lakers' Lamar Odom unhappy with idea of being sixth man

"He must have woke up and bumped his head. He probably hit his head on something -- boom," Odom said about Jackson. "To start off like that, you've got to be out of your . . . mind."

Odom, from his grade school days in New York City to high school to college and during his nine years in the NBA, always has been a starter.

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Several Lakers said today they are still bitter about losing the NBA championship in June to the Boston Celtics.

Kobe Bryant viewed it as lessons to be learned.

His team lost, 131-92, in Game 6 of the NBA Finals, which was close to being the most one-sided game in Finals history. His team also blew a 24-point lead in Game 4, which was the biggest comeback in Finals history since Elias Sports Bureau became the NBA's official keeper of statistics in the 1970-71 season.

"It was a bad taste," Bryant said. "But at the same time, it was like 'We got there.' Everybody knows that we had a lot of guys that missed a lot of games during the year. We shuffled lineups around the place. We missed our key guy to provide our defensive anchor. It is disappointing, but it was a great experience for my guys. It's time to go now."

Andrew Bynum sat out the final 46 regular-season games and all of the playoffs after having season-ending left knee surgery. Bynum is back healthy and ready to man the center position for the Lakers.

Pau Gasol, acquired Feb. 1 from the Memphis Grizzlies, will get a full season and training camp with the Lakers.

Trevor Ariza, acquired Nov. 20, from the Orlando Magic, sat out four months last season recovering from a broken right foot. He's healthy and will provide the Lakers a defensive presence on the wing, possibly even as a starter at small forward instead of Odom.

Bynum, Gasol and Ariza are expected to enhance the Lakers with a full season.

The Lakers remember the horrible feeling of being blown out by the Celtics in the Finals, and none of them want to feel that way again.

"It's something that we don't want to forget, that we want to keep in our minds," Gasol said. "I think that's going to be a factor in every single game, in every single thing, every single day to make us be better, to make us become better to get to that stage again."

broderick.turner@latimes.com