It Could Be Over Before It’s Over

The Laker season could come to its effective end tonight, 15 days before the regular season concludes, nine weeks before the NBA Finals begin.

If the Lakers lose to the Phoenix Suns, who happen to have the league’s best record, and the Denver Nuggets beat the Memphis Grizzlies, the Lakers won’t extend into May or June, and will just barely get past mid-April.

With 11 losses in their last 12 games, it’s more a matter of when elimination will happen.

The Lakers will play tonight without Lamar Odom, and possibly Kobe Bryant and Chris Mihm, as the Nuggets try for their 18th victory in their last 20 games.

The Lakers have nine games left and are 8 1/2 behind the Grizzlies and Nuggets for the final playoff spot in the Western Conference. They lost the season series to the Grizzlies, 3-0, but split with the Nuggets, 2-2, keeping them mathematically alive for tiebreaker scenarios if the Nuggets lose their final 10 games and the Lakers win their final nine.

In other words, the Lakers are about to become only the seventh team in league history to miss the playoffs after having reached the NBA Finals the previous season.

The victories are drying up, along with the analyses in the locker room.

Bryant spoke with reporters for 90 seconds after Saturday’s loss in San Antonio and did not stick around to talk after Sunday’s loss to Memphis. The team canceled practice Monday.

There aren’t many sound bodies left. Odom is probably done for the season because of a strained left shoulder.

Bryant is day to day because of a bruised muscle next to his right shin, and Mihm is day to day because of a sprained right ankle.

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Former coach Phil Jackson will be at Staples Center on Thursday for the game against the Houston Rockets. Jackson was invited by Laker owner Jerry Buss, but both sides maintain it is not a business meeting.

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With the Lakers all but finished, the last two weeks of the regular season could mean more playing time for rookie guard Sasha Vujacic, who had a season-high 10 points at Memphis.

“I didn’t have a big opportunity during the last couple of months,” said Vujacic, averaging 2.6 points. “But hopefully these nine games will give me something that the games before didn’t give me.”

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TONIGHT

at Phoenix, 7 p.m. PDT, Channel 9

Site -- America West Arena.

Radio -- 570, 1330.

Records -- Lakers 33-40, Suns 56-17.

Record vs. Suns -- 0-2.

Update -- The Suns, winners of five consecutive games, are fighting the Miami Heat and San Antonio Spurs for the league’s best record.