It’s ‘surreal’ as Lamar Odom returns to Staples Center

Did Lamar Odom ever really leave?

Reality TV cameras followed him from the moment he arrived at Staples Center. He looked spry on the court, attacking the basket and finding open teammates. He even received an enormous standing ovation when he entered the game.

Of course, there was that one little matter of wearing a Dallas Mavericks jersey instead of Lakers colors.

Oh yeah, that.

“It’s surreal,” Odom said, trying to capture his first visit to Staples Center since being traded last month for a future first-round pick.

He hugged Metta World Peace at midcourt before Monday’s game and shared a private on-court laugh with Kobe Bryant in the second quarter, the moment lingering a little too long only because Odom didn’t know he was being subbed out for Shawn Marion.

Predictably, Odom had one of his better games of a season in which he has started slowly. Odom, the NBA sixth man of the year last season with the Lakers, came in averaging 6.8 points, five rebounds and unsteady 31.2% accuracy for Dallas. He had seven points in the first quarter Monday, but he cooled off after that, finishing with 10 points and four rebounds in the Lakers’ 73-70 victory.

Long before the teams took the court, Odom was in a reflective mood. He had stashed away plenty of favorite memories from his time with the Lakers, but one stood out.

Naturally, it involved the Boston Celtics, and the Lakers’ anxiety-inducing 83-79 victory in Game 7 of the 2010 NBA Finals.

“Everybody had to grit it out, do more than one thing,” Odom said. “It was a big-time fight, two styles that contradict each other. Nobody gave up an easy basket.

“I couldn’t stomach Paul Pierce being able to walk [triumphantly] around Staples Center. I couldn’t see that. I couldn’t see [Kevin] Garnett huffing and puffing in Staples Center. All I could envision was them walking off in sorrow.”

Kobe in, Bynum out

No surprise: Bryant was selected as one of 20 finalists for the U.S. Olympic basketball team.

Also no surprise: Andrew Bynum was not selected.

The Lakers center recently said he would rather not play internationally during the summer.

“I haven’t been thinking about it,” Bynum said last week. “It’s definitely something that’s a great honor to do and all that, but for me right now, the health of my knees and stuff like that — I don’t know if long summers are the best thing for me.”

Team USA officials are leaving Bryant’s participation in the Olympics up to him, but they assume he’ll be up for it.

Bryant made two trips to Germany last summer to have innovative, non-invasive procedures on an ailing knee and ankle. He also has a torn ligament in his right wrist that could require surgery at some point.

“That’ll be his choice but it’ll have to be something very, very serious because he has a [limited] number of years still left,” Team USA Coach Mike Krzyzewski said in a conference call Monday with reporters. “I know he would want another Olympic championship. He’s about championships and we need him . . . because of that mentality.”

Lakers power forward Pau Gasol will represent the Spanish national team, which lost to the U.S. in the gold-medal game of the 2008 Olympics.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan

Times correspondent Mark Medina contributed to this report.