Odom Carries Lakers in Rocky Rocket Ride

The Lakers, weary and waning at the end of a complex, compact road trip, managed to discover a few new things about themselves, all in the best interest of forging an identity.

The discoveries, in no particular order, included the sudden skill of winning on the second night of back-to-back games, a capability to win when Kobe Bryant scores only one fourth-quarter point, and the ability of Lamar Odom to carry the team, if necessary.

On the night Laker Coach Rudy Tomjanovich returned to Houston, it was Odom who made the biggest impact in his brief Laker career in an 84-79 victory Saturday before 18,181 at Toyota Center.

He had been quietly marking time over the Lakers’ first seven games, displaying brilliance and dullness in equal parts until bursting through with 20 points, 13 rebounds and five assists, all team-highs in a game where every positive statistic was necessary to win.

When it was over, and the Lakers were able to exhale after splitting four road games in five nights, Odom sat in front of his locker and spoke of the importance of taking pressure off “Mr. Bryant,” in whatever way possible.

A few minutes later, Bryant returned the adulation.

“I got great support from Lamar,” said Bryant, who scored 19 points on seven-of-20 shooting and admitted afterward that the plantar fasciitis in his left foot bothered him during the game.

Bryant took only one shot in the fourth quarter, a 21-foot fadeaway in the final minute, and would have gone scoreless in the quarter if not for a free throw with 1:35 left to play.

“It was pretty sore tonight for whatever reason,” Bryant said. “We don’t play again until Wednesday. I look forward to not running on it [today], and Monday if we go light or whatever, do my necessary treatment, and Tuesday come back ready to play” at practice.

While Bryant played hurt, Houston’s prized off-season acquisition, Tracy McGrady, sat out because of a sore hip, leaving all of the scoring on Houston’s end to Yao Ming. He managed to get three Lakers in foul trouble -- Brain Grant, Chris Mihm and Brian Cook -- on the way to a season-high 32 points.

Behind Bryant and Odom, the Lakers managed to build a 22-point lead in the second quarter, almost mirroring the 18-point lead they established in the second quarter of Friday’s loss to Orlando.

And as it happened 24 hours earlier, the lead was lost: The Rockets took a short-lived 76-75 advantage with 5:31 left to play.

The Lakers took back control with free throws by Chucky Atkins, Bryant and Odom, an unexciting way to win, even ugly, as Tomjanovich put it, but enough to make the Lakers’ first lengthy road test a 50-50 split.

The Laker defense, drilled for 122 points against Orlando, the most surrendered by the Lakers in almost nine years, allowed only three points over the final five minutes.

“I’m proud of the way we hung in there,” Tomjanovich said. “We’ve had some games where we had similar situations but when that heat turns up we weren’t able to respond, and today I thought we did a great job.”

Tomjanovich, who coached the Rockets to NBA championships in 1994 and 1995 and stepped down when he was diagnosed with bladder cancer in March 2003, enjoyed the moment of his return, acknowledging the standing ovation that greeted him when he took the court.

But at the same time, Tomjanovich, hired to coach the Lakers in July, engineered a businesslike approach well before tip-off.

For the first time this season, the Lakers scheduled a shoot-around on the second day of back-to-back games, an indicator of the importance he placed on Saturday’s game.

“He’s got a little pep in his step,” forward Caron Butler said beforehand. “You can see it written all over his face.”

Then the Lakers went out and won on the second night of consecutive games for the first time in three tries. They had lost their previous two games in such situations by an average of 24.5 points.

“We knew how important it was to him to compete and play hard,” Odom said. “We got one for coach tonight.”