Lakers guard Kobe Bryant, the reigning NBA Most Valuable Player, said the Lakers' fast start this season has been no surprise, at least not to the Lakers.
As hot as the Lakers have been, however, Bryant expects the defending Western Conference champions to be challenged before season's end by several teams, including the Spurs. "Teams are still trying to find a rhythm for themselves," Bryant said. "Houston has had a lot of injuries; San Antonio has had a lot of injuries, but (the Spurs) find themselves in second slot. New Orleans is starting to gear up and play a little better.
"It's a long season. We just can't afford to have a three- or four-game slide."
That the Lakers came into Wednesday's game with an NBA-best 31-6 record, Bryant said, was what the team expected after a crisp training camp.
"I think we're right where we ought to be," he said, "and right where we expected we would be. During training camp one of our goals was to have the best record at about this point. We're doing a good job, and we've just got to stay with it."
Spurs coach Gregg Popovich believes the Lakers' relatively tepid challenge to the Celtics in a 4-1 series loss in the 2008 NBA Finals gave the Lakers impetus for their early push.
"They're a hungry team," Popovich said, "so they're going to be more serious from the very beginning, having not won in the Finals last year. They want to come in this year and make a statement early."
Worth noting: After the Orlando Magic hit an NBA-record 233-pointers against the Kings on Tuesday night, Popovich decided his club hadn't done as badly as he thought in its Sunday night loss to the Magic. The Spurs gave up only 14 triples to the Magic.
"All kinds of stuff happens in 82 games," Popovich said of Orlando's 3-pointer barrage in its victory in Sacramento.
Odom returns: Lakers forward Lamar Odom, who had experienced soreness in his right knee because of a bone bruise, played for the first time in a week in the Lakers' 105-100 victory over the Rockets on Tuesday night. He reported no problems after logging 12:39 on Tuesday.
"It didn't fall off," he said of his sore knee, "and if it had, I just would have put it back on and played. I'm just like Humpty Dumpty."
First-hand look: Spurs guard Roger Mason Jr. was experiencing the Spurs-Lakers rivalry for the first time as a player Wednesday, but he got a taste of it last spring during the Western Conference Finals.
Mason was in Los Angeles supporting some friends in the music business and scored a ticket for Game 5 of that series.
"I was picking up my ticket at will-call," Mason recalled, "and bumped into Ron Artest."
