LOS ANGELES — It’s been a fun few days for the Los Angeles Lakers.
Lamar Odom hung out at a doctor’s office for a while. Ron Artest was tailed by a neurologist. Pau Gasol got reacquainted with an MRI machine.
Good times, all around.
Strange thing, though, they were able to beat the Houston Rockets in a game that was somehow uglier than the final score, 88-79, Tuesday at Staples Center.
Andrew Bynum had 24 points, Kobe Bryant had 22 and the Lakers improved to 28-6, the same record they held a year ago through 34 games.
Odom had 17 points, 19 rebounds and nine assists after battling intestinal flu-like symptoms most of Monday. Artest had only seven points after missing five games because of a concussion, but the Lakers won without Gasol, sidelined because of a strained left hamstring.
Both teams could have used a shot doctor, the Lakers leading after the third quarter, 59-55, a score that would have made infinitely more sense had it been halftime.
But things continued to click for Bynum, who has been solid since Gasol left early in Sunday’s game against Dallas.
Perhaps it’s as easy as the thick paperback he’s been carrying around, "The 48 Laws of Power" a look at the history of power around the world, with references to Machiavelli, Sun-tzu, Queen Elizabeth I and Henry Kissinger.
More likely, it’s the fact that the lane is less clogged without Gasol.
On one fourth-quarter play, as the shot clock wound down, Bynum found himself alone against David Andersen in the right post. He backed Andersen down with a body bump or two, briefly gathered himself and cleanly made a four-foot hook.
Later, Bynum took a feed from Odom, stood below the free-throw line and drilled a soft hook over Luis Scola for an 80-73 lead with 2:11 to play.
"I got a lot more touches in the block," Bynum said. "It just gets easier from there."
Other than Bynum, who made 10 of 16 shots, and Odom, who made seven of 10, the Lakers’ starters experienced a poor shooting night. Bryant made nine of 23, Artest three of 11 and Derek Fisher was one of four.
The Rockets were actually worse, making only 11 of their first 36 shots on the way to a 40.3 percent shooting night.
Despite all the missed shots, Bryant broke a tie with Patrick Ewing for 15th on the NBA’s all-time scoring list. He now has 24,837 points, 355 behind Jerry West, who is 14th among career NBA scorers and also holds the Lakers all-time record with 25,192 points.
The Lakers lost by 10 to the Rockets in November at Staples Center, but the Rockets never led in this one.
Former Lakers forward Trevor Ariza continued his season-long trend of scoring a fair number of points but shooting poorly, finishing with 12 points on five-for-14 shooting.
The game plodded along in the first half, neither team able to do much on offense, the highlight coming when Odom hustled for an offensive rebound, tipped it to himself along the baseline, and kept alive a possession that led to Bryant’s left-handed runner.
The halftime score was 41-33, Lakers. The box score confirmed it.
Perhaps the best Lakers news of the night came from Gasol, who said his hamstring strain was less of a problem than the one that sidelined him for the season’s first 11 games.
"It’s milder, so hopefully it will heal a lot faster and I’ll be back a lot sooner," he said. "It is a little disappointing. I’ve never had an issue with hamstrings and now I’ve had two issues in a very, very short period of time."
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