Profit Looks to Be Sidelined for the Season

Laker guard-forward Laron Profit, who left in the fourth quarter of Tuesday’s game against the Dallas Mavericks, has been preliminarily diagnosed with a ruptured left Achilles’ tendon and probably will be out for the season.

Profit, averaging four points and 1.7 rebounds before Tuesday, will undergo further tests today.

“If it is ruptured, he’ll have surgery as soon as possible and it will probably end his season,” Laker spokesman John Black said.

Profit was acquired from the Washington Wizards as part of the Kwame Brown trade. His best game this season was a 14-point effort last month against the Toronto Raptors.

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Coach Phil Jackson declined to elaborate on facing Shaquille O’Neal on Sunday in Miami, electing to defer on the topic a bit longer, but he managed to work in an O’Neal reference Tuesday night.

It had nothing to do with Lakers-Heat or even Kobe Bryant, and was made while Jackson dissected Brown’s struggles from the free-throw line.

Brown has made only 18 of 40 free throws (45%), numbers that make O’Neal look like Rick Barry. Brown made one of four Tuesday against the Dallas Mavericks.

“We’re living with the fact that he’s taken Shaq’s position on our team ... because you know you’re going to squirm,” Jackson said of Brown’s problems at the free-throw line.

Brown came into the season a career 66.4% free-throw shooter but has slumped to the point that he sometimes takes an indirect path to the basket to avoid getting fouled, Jackson said.

“Unfortunately, he has not got the confidence of going to the line,” Jackson said. “But we’re trying to get him [used] to the idea of going to the foul line rather than avoiding it.”

O’Neal is a career 53.1% free-throw shooter.

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Lamar Odom does not like fielding questions about the revitalized Clippers. He is only slightly more open to talking about Miami.

“Even though I had a hell of a year there, it was only one year,” he said. “I kind of understand the business aspect. I play for the Lakers now.”

Odom spent his first four seasons with the Clippers before signing a free-agent contract with the Heat, where he averaged a career-best 17.1 points in 2003-04.

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Rick Fox, who played seven seasons with the Lakers and was part of three championship teams, was honored briefly after the first quarter of Tuesday’s game. Fox, who retired after the 2003-04 season, was given a framed No. 17 jersey.