Lakers Look to Bring It Home

Changes are underway for Part 2 of the Laker season, some of them major, some of them minor, all in the name of trying to avoid a disintegration similar to last season’s unprecedented 2-19 swan dive out of playoff contention.

There will be more Andrew Bynum sightings in the final 30 games, more attention (read: pressure) placed on Lamar Odom, and an at least temporary relocation of game-day shoot-arounds from the Laker training facility in El Segundo to Staples Center, where the Lakers have performed more like visitors than hosts in recent weeks.

The Laker bench is barren these days and the big men are dinged up -- Kwame Brown has been slowed by an assortment of injuries and Chris Mihm will play with a protective pad on his sprained right shoulder -- leaving more time for Bynum, who has averaged only 7.8 minutes but should expect more.

Long-term Laker plans still don’t call for Bynum to be consistently effective until, say, 2008-09, but now is the time to come to the aid of an ailing frontcourt.

“I’ve been real careful with him, trying to really nurture him, and now it’s time,” Laker Coach Phil Jackson said. “We want him to more than just develop as a practice player and actually be productive on the court. The pressure’s going to kind of accumulate on him the last third of the season, particularly if our injuries continue to plague us at that position.”

Bynum, drafted 10th overall at age 17 in June, has averaged two points and 2.1 rebounds in 31 games. His signature game came Jan. 17 against the Miami Heat, when he wheeled around Shaquille O’Neal for a dunk and then traded elbows with him on the way down the court.

Other than that, he has played like most other of the league’s teenagers -- gamely but inconsistently and, in recent games, poorly on defense.

“Most of the time, he’s at a loss for how to help the basketball club,” Jackson acknowledged. “He’s at a loss now defensively, which is what we’re really looking for him to do up the middle, block some shots.”

Bynum gets the message.

“He wants me to play defense and get rebounds,” he said. “That’s what I’m going to try to do, go out there and get offensive rebounds and create extra opportunities for the team.

“I’m definitely ready for it. I’ve been waiting for it all season.”

Not that long ago, the Lakers, 26-26 overall, had been waiting for this portion of the schedule -- 19 of their last 30 games at Staples, one being a Clipper home game -- although it suddenly presents itself as good tidings and bad, beginning tonight against Portland.

With their seven-game monster out of the way, the Lakers don’t have any more trips longer than three games, but the road might not look all that thorny to a team with a 13-10 home record, easily the worst of the eight Western Conference teams that would qualify if the playoffs started today.

Jackson is now concerned enough that, for the short term anyway, he plans to hold game-day shoot-arounds at Staples Center instead of El Segundo, the latter being the choice of the players, many of whom live only a few miles away.

But Jackson is Jackson, never once having missed the playoffs in 14 previous NBA seasons and not intending to start now, even if it means rousing players out of bed an hour earlier than usual.

Compounding the problem for the Lakers is a remaining schedule that is seventh-hardest in the league, with opponents that have combined for a .520 winning percentage.

Also problematic is Odom’s dwindling production. His monthly scoring average has dropped consistently since the season began, from 15.2 points in November to 14 in December to 13.4 in January and 12.3 this month.

He has had trouble with the triangle offense, sometimes failing to move after passing the ball, forgetting to make curls and cuts, and unsuccessfully posting up smaller guards when the opportunity exists.

The Lakers are hoping to add a veteran guard before Thursday’s trade deadline, but Jackson’s hope is that Odom firmly takes control of the facilitator role.

“If Lamar gets consistent with his game and finds a role out there, it relieves the pressure on having an experienced guard,” Jackson said. “It can really relieve that pressure and then we have a unique situation where it’s a matchup problem for teams. At this point we haven’t proven that it’s an advantage situation for us to have him there.”

Fans have noticed the losses, and apparent lack of a home-court advantage, sighing collectively, and not always quietly, as the defeats have piled up.

“They have a reason to be impatient,” Jackson said. “This team’s not been consistent for too long any time in its history and when your rivals, the Clippers, are doing as well as they’re doing, there’s always the sideline glance over at the opponents in the same town.”

TONIGHT

vs. Portland, 7:30, FSN West

Site -- Staples Center.

Radio -- 570, 1330.

Records -- Lakers 26-26, Trail Blazers 18-33.

Record vs. Trail Blazers -- 0-1.

Update -- Laker center Chris Mihm will return tonight after sitting out six games because of a sprained right shoulder. The Lakers gave up 59 points in the first half of a 113-103 loss to Portland last month. Like the Lakers, the Trail Blazers lost seven of 10 going into the All-Star break.

Tickets -- (800) 462-2849 or ticketmaster.com.