Odom expects to practice

Lamar Odom said after Friday's game that he is going to try and practice on Saturday. Odom has missed the last two games with a bone bruise in his right knee, suffered in Tuesday's loss to New Orleans.

``I'm going to try and practice tomorrow,'' Odom said on his way out of Staples Center Friday night. ``We'll see. I was scared when it first happened. But I think I'm OK.''

He did not offer a prediction on when he'd return to the lineup, saying only that he was ``day-to-day'' but the fact that he feels well enough to try and return to practice has to be considered a positive step.

Without their versatile 6-foot-10 forward, the Lakers have struggled to defend athletic post players and to adjust to an ever-changing lineup with Odom, Luke Walton and Jordan Farmar out with injuries.

``It's tough. We're down three guys. Three key guys,'' Kobe Bryant said. ``So it's putting a lot of responsibility on all of us to mix and match lineups, to guard players you normally wouldn't guard and do things offensively that you normally wouldn't do. But that's part of a team, just stepping up when guys are out.''