Three-Point Landing Won’t Do for Lakers

Early Thursday morning as Laker fans thrashed in their sleep, trying to figure out how their heroes could shoot 17% on three-pointers and still take 29 of them, the team’s plane aborted its landing at LAX, giving Rudy Tomjanovich an entirely new perspective.

Tomjanovich had been taking the loss hard. With a two-game winning streak after rallying from 17 down at Minnesota, he thought the Lakers were finally making some headway, before they no-showed against the Denver Nuggets, who danced on their heads Wednesday night.

“We had a great, great road win at Minnesota,” he said. “Come from behind, everybody contributing, pushed us to a real, real positive level. And then to come into that situation and not respond -- very disheartening.

“We tried to do a checklist of all the things -- where we’re at, how important it is, what it means, how good they are, make an edit of their team [Nuggets], show their strengths, and you just don’t know sometimes how it’s going to work out.”

Now, as the plane headed up the coast to burn off its fuel before landing, a fleet of fire trucks and emergency vehicles standing by, Tomjanovich discovered a more pressing concern:

I just want to live!

As the ensuing game proved, with Kobe Bryant going down, a Laker coach needs all the perspective he can get these days.

More to the point, the organization does too. The coaches and players’ mission is clear, to be the best they can, to set disappointment aside and try to get better every day.

The organization has another mission: To figure out where they are, where they want to be, and if they can get there from here.

The answer is: They’re in the middle of the pack. This can be called “respectable” or “mediocre” or “OK,” or whatever. The important thing is, it’s definitely not “great.”

The next question becomes: Can it ever be great?

The answer is: They won’t know until they figure out how to use Lamar Odom.

Odom was acquired to be 1A to Bryant’s 1, but so far at 14.6 points a game, he is indistinguishable in the offense from Caron Butler (13.6), Chucky Atkins (11.4) and Chris Mihm (10.9).

Instead of a 1-2 punch, the Lakers have your basic 1-4 end-of-the-quarter set, where four guys go down on the baseline and Kobe takes on the entire opposing defense.

How do you like it so far?

The next step is to post the 6-foot-10 Odom up and run the offense through him, which everyone says they want to do but never happens.

Tomjanovich says he asks Odom where he wants the ball and it’s more on the wing than in the post. Odom doesn’t even wind up getting the ball on the wing much. More often he’s on the arc, a long way from that hoop the Lakers approach so rarely.

The answer, as suggested by people who know Odom: Tell him to go into the post.

Odom is naturally deferential, likes to play out on the floor and is great at it, at least for a 6-10 guy.

On the other hand, he’s way better around the basket, where his quickness, height, deft jump hooks and passing ability make him a major weapon. And he’ll do what the coach tells him to, as he did last season in Miami.

If Bryant has to sit out a week or two, let him, at least, see what Odom can do in the post, because the Lakers have to get the ball out of Kobe’s hands.

The more anxious Bryant is to make this work, the more he dominates the ball, the more defenses lock in on him and the harder the game becomes for him.

It’s not a coincidence Bryant is at a career high in assists (6.6) and minutes (42 a game), a career low in shooting percentage (40.6%), his team still doesn’t have a balanced offense and it’s merely respectable, mediocre or whatever.

A fully functioning Bryant-Odom tandem might not make the Lakers great, but it would be a good idea to see how it stacks up against Shaquille O’Neal-Dwyane Wade, Steve Nash-Amare Stoudemire, Chris Webber-Mike Bibby, Tim Duncan-Tony Parker, Ray Allen-Rashard Lewis and Dirk Nowitzki-Michael Finley, to name just a few ahead of them in the standings.

If the Lakers still aren’t great, they’re at Plan B, signing a big-ticket free agent in 2007, when Stoudemire and Yao Ming could be on the market, or 2008, when LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony and Darko Milicic could be.

The tipoff would be next summer, when the Class of 2007 is eligible for extensions. If Yao or Stoudemire turns down the $80-million deals their teams will surely offer, it will suggest they’re eyeing free agency and will be in play.

If both sign, the Lakers would move to Plan C, which may or may not exist.

My suggestion would be Jason Kidd, if he can persuade the New Jersey Nets to trade him; if he hasn’t already persuaded them to trade him to Minnesota, Dallas or Denver; and if the Lakers can satisfy the Nets without giving up Bryant or Odom.

That’s a lot of ifs, but nobody said this would be easy, or possible, or even the way to bet.

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Faces and Figures

Just in the nick of time: With management shopping Eddy Curry and Tyson Chandler all over the league, the young Chicago Bulls suddenly took off, winning 12 of 15 and ending the discussions. “They started to get it right about the time when we beat Utah and got our first win of the season,” said teammate Eric Piatkowski. “Tyson, all of a sudden he decides, ‘I’m just going to grab every rebound that’s out there.’ Other than Shaq, I look around the Eastern Conference and I don’t see any other center as good as Eddy.

Early in the season, we’re throwing the ball in to him and he’s turning and fading away and doing all these crazy, wild shots. I don’t know if somebody pulled him aside and said,

‘Hey, listen, you’re bigger than these guys.... Catch the ball, go straight up over them and shoot it.’ Now he’s getting dunks. Twenty points is just a very average night for him in my mind.”

Of course, everyone around the league was rooting for the Bulls -- not. “Heck, I hope they get rid of both of them, if you want me to be honest,” said Boston Coach Doc Rivers. “Actually, I think it would be good for us if they did. Someone asked me, ‘Do you think the Bulls will move their bigs?’ I said, ‘No, I don’t think anybody’s moving any bigs.’ The last time I looked, there were not a whole heck of a lot of them.”

Scratch one musketeer: That stuff about how close the Sacramento Kings are is true. When they traded Doug Christie, Webber didn’t talk before the next game, saying it would be “too hard” to discuss the loss of Christie. Bibby said it was “like losing a member of your family.” Christie, speaking from his home, ended a scheduled 30-minute radio interview after less than 10 minutes, becoming overcome with emotion and cutting it short.

Milicic, still chained to Larry Brown’s bench in Detroit, poured his heart out to a Belgrade TV station, B92. According to a translation in the Detroit News, it went like this: B92: “James and Anthony have become superstars on and off the court while you have not gotten any PT.” Milicic: “I’m trying through practice to get rid of all the negative energy that has been building up in me. I’m hoping that much better times are coming, but it is what it is right now. Maybe I’ll have to talk to management because I don’t think I’ll be able to go through this the rest of the season.” B92: “Milicic’s departure at age 18 has caused a long-lasting debate about that being a correct move.” Milicic: “So, maybe I did make a small mistake. NBA is NBA.”

Oops: Portland General Manager John Nash, asked what kind of job Coach Maurice Cheeks has done with the Trail Blazers: “I don’t want to offer any kind of evaluation. It is too sensitive of an issue.”