Odom not ready?

Before tonight's preseason game in Anaheim, coach Phil Jackson said Lamar Odom could miss the first five games (or two weeks) of the regular season. Odom is recovering from offseason shoulder surgery.

"It could be five games, it could be one or two games. We don't know," Jackson said. ``It'll just be until Lamar's able to play and keep up with the game, and that may take a little bit of time. But we've been without him since we started training camp, so we have a way to play. Last year we played without Kobe and won our first two games of the season. So we know that there's a way to patch this up if you're ready to play.

``I know Lamar's anxious to play, and he wanted to play in the opening game, but the consensus is to give him a little more time. I mean, he's on the court and active with us in almost everything but the serious contact we get into.

``He did have a little bit of drill sequence two or three weeks ago where he got into some physical contact, and it was still evident that he wasn't ready. So we backed off at that time considerably. But he's still getting his running in and his shooting in, so I think it could be just a simple step to go back on the court and get back in the swing of it."