Kobe's fingerprints are all over this one

The team has ripped through expectations so far, pushing toward the front of the flock, but there's that geographic issue of not being in the watered-down Eastern Conference. There's really no rest in the West.

Only three games separate the top six teams in the conference standings, with the Lakers (35-17) currently owning the third-best record.

"It's the wild, wild West, truly," Kobe Bryant said.

The Lakers have 17 home games and 13 road games left, a scheduling advantage that might be more celebrated by them if not for the injury cloud hovering overhead.

Center Andrew Bynum is at least three weeks from returning from a left knee injury and forward Trevor Ariza is still about eight weeks from returning from a broken bone in his right foot. Ariza's original timetable called for a return to health four weeks from now, but his foot was "healing more slowly than we hoped," a team official said Monday.

Then there is Bryant's right pinkie finger, which was injured two weeks ago and aggravated last Wednesday.

He played fewer then three minutes in Sunday's All-Star game, by design, and he intends to endure the rest of the season playing with a torn ligament in the pinkie. Surgery was recommended by a hand specialist and quickly dismissed by Bryant.

And yet, Coach Phil Jackson offered surprisingly strong guidance on what he expected from the Lakers over the final 30 regular-season games.

"I think probably we have to win 25 games," he said Monday. "I think that's probably what a team is going to have to do to win it outright [in the West], somewhere between 20 and 25."

Nothing like shooting for the sky -- 25 would give them a 60-win season.

Then again, the Lakers were supposed to have been shot down long ago, what with the low expectations when the season began amid tumult and uncertainty.

They've merely gone 17-7 at home, 18-10 on the road and have been stirred by the acquisition of Pau Gasol, who has averaged 20.5 points, 8.3 rebounds and 2.7 assists in six games with the Lakers.

Gasol, for the record, feels the same way. "It just gave me a shot of life," he said.

Other teams took notice, with Phoenix acquiring Shaquille O'Neal and Dallas on Monday reportedly putting the final touches on a deal to obtain Jason Kidd, as if the West needed to get more challenging.