Four straight strong games from Lamar Odom.
Four straight Lakers wins.
No, it's probably not a coincidence.
Odom -- despite his bruised but healing back -- was second on the Lakers in minutes Sunday night (45 minutes, 53 seconds) and once again filled his line in the box score -- 19 points, eight rebounds, two assists, a steal, three blocks and two turnovers -- in the Lakers' 101-96 win over Orlando in Game 2 of the NBA Finals.
In the Lakers' current four-game playoff win streak, Odom is averaging 17.3 points, 11 rebounds and two blocks -- pretty good by anyone's standards, and pretty clearly a difference-making contribution for the Lakers.
This despite a large area of swelling (gradually decreasing, but still sizeable) in his lower back, the result of a hard full in the second-round series with Houston.
"Nothing in my life has been easy, like from day one," said Odom. "I don't expect it. I've got a nice big house, I expect the door to break. I expect something to go wrong. That's life."
There's not much going wrong for Odom right now.
"I look down today and I see I played 45 minutes," he said. "Kobe played 48. He's always hurt. Pau is hurt. That's the way it is. I'm an athlete. I have to just take care of myself."
Phil Jackson knew Odom would eventually get a handle on his back. But no one knew how long it would take.
"It was about being able to play with discomfort, pain that arises from that," said Jackson. "So we thought that he would improve, and actually he has improved. He's come through in every game. ... I know he's struggling out there at the end of the game, but he still came through in a big way for us."
The most impressive thing about Odom's night may be that he needed just nine shots (hitting eight) to score his 19 points. Even when he's that efficient, he knows he's not going to demand the ball, or get it much more.
"You've got Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol," he said. "Those guys are perennial all-stars. I know the offense. I know how to find my way through the offense and get those shots and make them when they count, and all I have to do is get the defense leaning toward me and then Pau and Kobe get it going.
"There's going to be some nights I just have to be efficient. ... I've just got to take advantage when my opportunity comes."
The near miss: Orlando very nearly changed the complexion of the series in a fraction of a second.
Had Courtney Lee made a layup off an alley-oop inbounds pass with six-tenths of a second remaining, Orlando would have won 90-88 in regulation and tied the finals at 1-1 going to Florida.
Instead, the shot bounced out, and the Lakers went on to the overtime win.
"It was a good play," said Lee. "It was a good pass. Coach (Stan Van Gundy) did a good job of drawing up the right play. I caught it, got a good look at the backboard. I tried to get it up there as quick as possible, and the ball rolled off the rim."
Orlando was originally going to run a different play, but with Odom pressuring Hedo Turkoglu's inbounds pass, Turkoglu called a time-out, and Van Gundy drew up something else.
"We executed well," said Van Gundy. "Hedo made a great pass, and we missed it. ... I don't know what else to say. It was a great pass, it was right there, and he missed it."
Said Turkoglu, "I saw an opening and threw it up. It's just luck."
Lee escaped Kobe Bryant's defensive coverage for the open shot, leaving Bryant to merely watch and utter to himself a four-letter word before the shot bounced away. Pau Gasol, meanwhile, leapt toward the basket to try to pressure Lee.
"I was obviously relieved when he missed that shot," said Gasol, "because it could have been a heartbreaker, and right now we could be in a totally different situation.
"I was surprised he was kind of wide open. But I tried to contest it as good as I could, and then we gave ourselves a chance to win the ballgame."
The all-star announcement: Truthfully, beyond the news that the NBA All-Star Game is coming to L.A. in 2011, there wasn't much notable from the press conference announcing the event. The people on the podium -- commissioner Stern, Tim Leiweke (CEO of AEG), mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and councilwoman Jan Perry -- spent times saying nice things about each other and the event. Various reporters from various cities asked about the prospect their cities could land future games. And then everyone left to watch the most boring first quarter in NBA Finals history.
Probably the most interesting exchange came when Leiweke was asked if he could envision hosting the All-Star game at an AEG property outside the United States. He said yes, but both he and Stern said they could not foresee it at AEG's arena in London.
Which would seem to leave China, where AEG and the NBA are partners in operating arenas, including the one that hosted the Olympic basketball tournament this year. Not that the game is likely to leave North America any time soon.
What they said: A few Orlando postgame quotes:
Van Gundy, who played most of the fourth quarter without either of his point guards, Rafer Alston or Jameer Nelson on the court, asking J.J. Reddick to run the offense:
"I thought Rafer was playing well, but they're just leaving him open on every post-up, and we couldn't get the ball in the basket, so we were just searching for somebody to be able to make a shot. Obviously, we didn't find anybody. Our guards were 6 for 26 ... L.A.'s defense was good, but I thought our guards for the most part had very good open looks. ...
"That was the only thing, we were just trying to see if we could get somebody out there who would make shots off the double teams and off the pick-and-rolls and things like that."

Dwight Howard, again contained by the Lakers' defense:
"I think they're doing a great job, team defense. They're mixing it up on me. When Pau is on me, he's forcing me baseline, and there's a big coming to trap me. They're mixing it up. They're doing some crazy things, and its' been frustrating me a little bit.
"But I just have to be more patient and trust my teammates, kick it out and allow them to hit the open shots, and hopefully that will free me up more on the inside. ...
"I was frustrated tonight and in the first game, but being the leader on my team, my teammates cannot see me frustrated."

Turkoglu, on the inability to convert on that final play in regulation:
"It's really hard when you lose these kinds of games when they're in your control, and especially in the fourth quarter. We played better than we played in the first game, but we still have some stuff that we have to do better and we have to correct. We have a lot of turnovers (20) and missed free throws.
"All around, we played good, but it wasn't good enough to win the game."

LOS ANGELES -- I have long been a fan of Lamar Odom the person, one of the nicer guys you will ever meet, in professional sports or anywhere else. Odom the player can be a more frustrating proposition, because he always seems capable of more than he does.
But it would be very difficult to find fault with Odom now, either in his impact with the Lakers or how he's handling his moves from the bench to the starting lineup and (probably) back.
Odom was a huge factor in the Lakers' 107-96 win over Utah on Monday to close out the first-round series. He finished with 26 points, 15 rebounds, four assists and three blocks, offset only by three turnovers. That gave him 36 points and 30 rebounds in his two starts at the end of the series, which probably won't be enough to retain a spot in the starting lineup. Coach Phil Jackson said he would "more than likely" put Andrew Bynum back in the starting lineup against either Portland or Houston.
"That gives us a big lineup," said Jackson. "I think we're pretty good with that lineup. We've done some good things over the course of the year, even after he came back (from his injury). ...
"Lamar's playing great, but his effort off the bench is going to be very important to us. It gives us a whole different arrangement to how we play."
No big deal, said Odom.
"It makes no difference," he said. "Obviously you can see that now, in my game, in my rhythm. I'm here to do whatever it takes to win, and that's to create positive energy. So it's too late in the season for me to take that personal, or pout."
And, he said, there's no difference in preparation, regardless of his role.
"I feel good," he said. "I'm in the prime of my career. I'm handsome. I'm pretty." (Yes, he did laugh as he said that.)
Odom averaged 17.8 points, 11 rebounds, 2.4 assists and 1.6 blocks in the Utah series, after regular-season averages of 11.3 points, 8.2 rebounds, 2.6 assists and 1.3 blocks.
"He's a versatile player," said Pau Gasol. "There's no doubt about that. He's been a little bit up and down. He's not extremely comfortable coming off the bench, and probably not as productive as he is as a starter, as with probably the majority of players in this league. ...
"No matter what lineup, he's going to help, because of his skills, his knowledge of the game. He knows how to play, he attacks all the power forwards because of his ball handling and speed and skill set. So he's a guy that can contribute in different ways. He's got his confidence up now, and he's got to take advantage of it."
So do the Lakers, because Odom is so unique in his mix of size and skills.
"Lamar, you can drop him anywhere," said Kobe Bryant, "and he's going to be effective, going to be productive. And that's what makes him so valuable. He can come off the bench. He can play four positions. His rebounding's a big key for us, and his shooting. He's been shooting the ball really well. And defensively he's been guarding a multitude of players.
"He's a big key for it."
That's been true throughout the season, but it was certainly true against Utah.
What they said: A variety of other postgame reactions from Monday night:
Jackson, on the team's play in the series, and the finale:
"I think we played well. Offensively, we had some really good games. I thought we played spotty defense tonight. I liked our defense for the first three quarters: Good hands, tipping the ball, getting runouts kind of broke the game open. We didn't close the door.
"We had four guys off the bench with Kobe at the start of the fourth quarter, and they just couldn't sustain the effort. ...
"I told them in the locker room we have to improve as we go forward."
Trevor Ariza, who started despite spraining his ankle in Game 4 and had 12 points, seven rebounds, four assists, a steal, two blocks and four turnovers in 27:29:
"That's what my team needed me to do. I try to do everything I can to help my team win. ...
"We're happy that we got the win, but I don't think we're happy about how we won, so we have to pay attention and stay focused on closing games out."
Jazz center Mehmet Okur, on Utah's late comeback bid:
"It was a little bit too late 'cause they had a 20-point lead. We just wanted to come out there in the fourth, just bring our 'A' game. We should've started the game like that. It was a must-win game for us. For some reason, we just couldn't start like that."
Jazz guard Deron Williams, on the physical play at the end of the game:
"It is what it is. It happens out there. You've got to take your hat off to those guys (the Lakers) though. They came out, they had a game plan, they were a focused team and they executed their game plan."
Jazz coach Jerry Sloan, unhappy with his team's early effort, calling it "fair at best":
"I was surprised it took something like Ronnie Price's effort to bring us back alive out there. I have never seen a guy play that hard in my life, in that situation. ...
"Ronnie Price gave us some tremendous play in order to help us get there (back within five after trailing by 22). Had we set screens like that all night, we would have gotten a lot easier shots. If we'd done it like that in the whole series, we'd have gotten better shots."
No Luke: Prior to the game, the Lakers announced that Luke Walton was out indefinitely after an MRI discovered a partially torn ligament in his left ankle. Walton said he'd suffered the injury in the third quarter of Game 4 and kept playing, but "it just got worse and worse. By the time we landed (on the flight home), it was killing me. So I got an MRI this morning, and they said I've got to shut it down for a while.
"It's frustrating, it sucks, but it happens. So I'll deal with it, and treat it, and hope to get back out there."
Walton said he "absolutely" expects to play in the second round.
He called the way the injury occurred "weird.
"I stopped to make a pivot, and felt my bone kind of shift. It didn't even roll over. The bone kind of shifted out and came back, and they said when that happened, it tore part of the ligament. ...
"It's a dull, throbbing pain. And obviously, when I try to push off it, it turns to sharper. But it already feels better today than yesterday. So we'll see what (trainer) Gary Vitti can do."