Lakers Fine With Making Their Run Sans Bynum

Not that any of us had the future of these playoffs down pat, but here's some big Lakers news:

When asked after practice if there was a risk of messing up team chemistry by playing 7-footers Bynum and Pau Gasol at the same time, Jackson replied: "I think without a doubt that Andrew would come off the bench and we would play him a little bit off the bench if there was any chance that he could come back and play again, but it's such a remote thing. We're not seriously thinking about it."

So there it is. No Gasol/Bynum/Odom Murderer's Row this spring, at least not in any full-blown way. I'd yet to resent the Lakers' current, overnight wealth the way I do the Celtics'; I'm guessing that's because I pull for Kobe and don't like Boston. But I just felt it. After a dominant weekend performance, in which Odom/Gasol looked like the missing link between the Suns and, well, being good, we're reminded of the team's setbacks. Sorry, no tears from over here.

If the Lakers have to wait till next year to make a run with Bynum, I won't feel they've been cheated by injury. If they win this year without him, you have to wonder: Will they be underdogs of sorts, or the least sympathetic team on earth, since that's how stacked they are? Maybe get ready for the Bynum Theory, a revisionist history that says the team could've actually traded him all along, since they'd eventually get Gasol. Though I don't think the Lakers would really take Kidd or Baron over Fisher and Farmar at this point.

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