Time off may be just the ticket

The Lakers will scatter for a few days during the All-Star break, not necessarily a bad thing for them with the way the last few weeks have gone.

Brian Cook will head home to Lincoln, Ill. Maurice Evans is off to Cabo San Lucas. Coach Phil Jackson will be in Washington, D.C., for the wedding of one his daughters. Luke Walton might win the least-traveled award -- he’s merely going to San Diego, his hometown.

Jackson called it all “perfect timing.” The team will meet again Monday afternoon for practice.

“This is fortunate for us,” Jackson said. “It’s a little bit short, but it’s better than nothing.”

That the Lakers have slumped recently is no secret. Even the newcomers can sense it.

Unlike last year, Evans will take advantage of the break. As a member of last season’s Detroit Pistons, who started out 37-5, he more or less found the All-Star down time to be a distraction.

“I didn’t think we needed a break,” he said.

Nowadays, with a Lakers team that has stumbled since reaching a peak record of 26-13, Evans will enjoy all three days.

“Because we’ve been struggling, you feel like you’re in quicksand,” he said. “There’s a lot of frustration. I’m going to just relax.”

Kobe Bryant will be participating in his ninth All-Star game and Lamar Odom will be in Las Vegas to unveil a new clothing line.

Odom pledged to find time to continue working on his right leg, which lost strength during a six-week recovery period from a sprained knee.

“I’ll be in the gym a lot,” he said. “I’ll be waking up in the gym.”

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The Basketball Hall of Fame will announce finalists for its 2007 class today in Las Vegas, which means Jackson (a slam dunk) and Lakers owner Jerry Buss (possibly) could be ushered toward the next round of voting.

Other candidates include Maurice Cheeks, Adrian Dantley, Dennis Johnson, Bernard King and Dick Vitale.

A series of screening committees selects the finalists, whose names are then placed on the official ballot and forwarded to a different 24-member committee. A finalist needs at least 18 votes to be elected to the Hall of Fame.

The new members will be announced in April at the NCAA men’s Final Four in Atlanta. Induction ceremonies will be held in early September in Springfield, Mass.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com