Lakers could use a bang from big men

The kid keeps watching and recovering, three more weeks until he can start jogging, but the Lakers' inside game has been stuck on a treadmill against Boston in the NBA Finals.

Lamar Odom is averaging 9.3 points and five fouls through three games. Pau Gasol is averaging 13.7 points (more than five below his season average), has blocked only one shot in the Finals and was a non-entity in Game 3 until a pair of late tip-ins . . . off Odom misses.

Odom and Gasol fed off each other brilliantly toward the end of the regular season and through most of the playoffs, but now the Lakers are winning despite them.

Odom's first field goal in Game 3 came with 4:22 left in the third quarter. Gasol's first field goal was a few minutes later. That's two-thirds of a frontcourt that also starts Vladimir Radmanovic, who scored three points.

They'll get another chance tonight in Game 4 at Staples Center, with the Celtics ahead, two games to one. It can't come fast enough for Odom.

He was hit with more than a dozen questions at Wednesday's practice about his struggles in the series.

"You have to persevere," he said. "Right now, it's about the L.A. Lakers, not Lamar Odom. If I could just stay on the court to help the team do whatever, whether it's rebounding or making plays . . . you can't expect for every game to be a 20-point game in the Finals. I'll go watch the tape over and over again and just see what I can do."

He'll see a lot of the same sequences on video.

The Celtics are dropping off Odom and begging him to take 15-foot jumpers (he is shooting 41.9% in the Finals, very low for a power forward). When Odom does decide to drive, he runs into Kevin Garnett, the NBA defensive player of the year.

Odom also can't stay on the court because he keeps picking up fouls.

He barely made it to the midpoint of the first quarter before picking up his second foul in Game 3. He went to the bench, returned for the start of the second quarter and picked up his third foul 23 seconds into the quarter. Back to the bench again.

Unlike Kobe Bryant, who can sit on the sidelines for half an hour, enter a game and start drilling jumpers, Odom is a rhythm player who needs uninterrupted playing time to be effective.