A wild win

The Lakers rallied from a 15-point deficit to beat the New York Knicks, 116-114, on Tuesday night at Staples Center. And get this, they got booed off the court by another demanding sellout crowd after trailing by 65-50 at halftime.

"You can't say we don't have character," said Trevor Ariza, who gave the Lakers the lead for good with a layup off a lob pass from Lamar Odom with 1:03 remaining. "It's another type of game we can try to learn from."

Give the Lakers credit. They seem to understand they are very much a work in progress.

Odom stepped up and had a season-best 17 points and a team-leading 12 rebounds in his first start of the season. He replaced power forward Pau Gasol, who was sent home before the game because of a case of strep throat.

Kobe Bryant said this about Odom: "He played extremely well, really hard, and did a great job for us. Pau, he's tough to replace because of what he brings to the team: his post presence, his ability to pass the ball and rebound. We just have another player, a different kind of player (in Odom)."