Lakers need to keep this a short-term issue

Have you noticed how nothing works anymore in Lakerdom?

The Lakers celebrated playing two weeks without Andrew Bynum on Sunday -- I know, it seems longer -- losing their fourth game in the last five.

The game was actually halted because of rain, which Staples Center officials explained wasn't really from leaks, although there were other leaks in other spots.

And when you come right down to it, the weather here has been awful the last two weeks too.

Andrew Bynum . . . one minute he's some clueless kid they should trade for Jason Kidd, the next life around here is unendurable without him.

Then there's the Lakers' upcoming nine-game trip that seemed to loom so ominously after Sunday's 98-95 loss to the Cleveland Cavaliers that Coach Phil Jackson laughed at a question about what lay ahead.

"Doom," said Jackson, grinning. "It's just doom from here on out."

Actually, if you remember back as far as October when the Lakers really did seem doomed, their prospects are wondrous -- on Sunday Kobe Bryant went so far as to call Bynum "the player I prayed for" -- in the long term.

If only they can get through the short term.

"The Lakers, when they get Bynum back, to me, I think they can come out of the West," said ABC commentator Jeff Van Gundy before the game.

"But they may drop out [of the playoffs] in Bynum's absence."

Without Bynum, the Lakers have returned to those thrilling days of yesteryear when everything revolved around the tandem of Bryant and Lamar Odom . . . which didn't work.

Odom could never score enough.

Bryant always shot too much or not enough.

They missed the playoffs once and lost in the first round twice with memorable moments such as Odom explaining he wasn't that kind of player . . . Lamar occasionally conceding that if it was so important, he'd go out and score 20 . . . Lamar actually going out and scoring 20 . . . before going back to being Lamar.

One definition of madness is doing the same thing and expecting a different result, or welcome to the last six games.

Odom has indeed done a lot of other things, averaging 11 rebounds and 4.5 assists.

Nevertheless, he's still Lamar, averaging 11.5 points, which is actually less than the 13.5 he averaged as the No. 3 option behind Bryant and Bynum.

So, the Lakers now are left with a No. 1 option and a No. 3.

There's a word for this: dysfunctional.