Tuesday, December 29, 2009

If Andrew Bynum is going to stand tall, now's the time

Mike Bresnahan covers the Lakers for The Times and ties up loose ends on the day of his self-designated "Lakers game of the week." The Lakers play tonight at Phoenix.

Wow, Andrew Bynum's going to need some kind of a holiday miracle to snap out of his funk. . . .

Hey, look, it's the Phoenix Suns!

The Lakers have already beaten the small-ball Suns by 19 and 20 points this season, Bynum averaging 19.5 points and 10.5 rebounds against their center-less frontcourt.

The 22-year-old center has had all sorts of problems lately, scoring seven points and shooting 21.4% in his last 62 minutes of action, but maybe the height-challenged Suns are the ones to help him turn things around.

If not, it's a long time till the Lakers see the Suns again. Like, so long I can't even say it. OK, I'll say it. March 12.

Q&A of the day

Q: It was a bad day for all the Laker fans all over the globe [on Christmas]. That was not Lakers basketball. Guys are just standing out there, they're not moving like they were used to, and on defense they're just watching a bunch of Cavs shooting at will and dunking on their faces. I can take losing 200 bucks to a friend, but watching my Lakers losing to LeBron James and his Cavs without putting up fight was unacceptable especially when anti-Lakers fan texting you after that bad game saying bad things about the Lakers.

-- Jo C. A: I'm not sure what's worse -- losing $200 or having anti-Lakers fan texting you after that bad game saying bad things about the Lakers. Sounds like a tie to me.

Final thought

Record in weekly picks: 7-2.

I got crushed last week, assuming the Lakers would breeze past Cleveland. Good call. Solid. (Yes, Cavs fans, I received all your snarky e-mails. . . . Happy holidays to you all!)

This week, I'll take the Lakers to win against the li'l Suns, and in a bonus prediction, Bynum will not post a single-single for the first time since Nov. 17.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan