Phil's Drama of Non-Drama in Lakers Line-Up

There have been some serious rumblings out of Lakers camps that Andrew Bynum is not, in fact, all that, and that he and Pau Gasol can't play well together. These reports grew especially dire when coaches downplayed their practices together, Bynum came off the bench in the first exhibition game, and for some reaosn, other big-ish man Lamar Odom ended up starting and playing minutes at point guard.

Ha! This was all by design, even the doom-and-gloom part. Today, so sayeth the Orange County Register, we'll really see if Bynum/Gasol is ready for action:

Phil Jackson said he's determined to get a look at Bynum and Gasol playing together for the first time in the exhibition game tonight against the Clippers. He also indicated that Gasol's surprise at starting at center in the exhibition opener Tuesday (and Bynum coming off the bench) was a Jackson mind game. Jackson wanted to do something jarring because the tandem wasn't doing well early in training camp.

"I thought they were a little bit lackadaisical to start with," Jackson said. "I wanted to shake 'em up a little bit the first game. And now we'll see how they go. I'll probably not start them that way (tonight), but they'll play that way."

You can groan at this as typical Phil, or take this as reason to dismiss the preseason as meaningless -- in all truth, I'm not as up on it as I should. But as much of a cliche as Jackson's methods have become, they seem to have worked here. Everyone in the media and on the web is freaked out and confused, the players are taking nothing for granted, and now the Zen Master can really figure out how to fit these pieces together -- most likely, I'm guessing, in the way we'd anticipated all along. Just with that added ingredient of adversity, self-discovery, and enlightenment.

This post originally appeared on the Sporting Blog. For more, see The Sporting Blog Archives.