Another interesting night in Lakerland. It seems as though the drama will never end.

How is it possible to have so many injuries for one team, in one calendar year?

• Bynum’s left knee
• Kobe’s pinkie finger
• Fisher’s foot
• Ariza’s foot
• Odom’s shoulder
• Gasol’s whatever he injured last season
• Kobe’s ring finger
• Vujacic’s back
• Walton’s foot
• Bynum’s right knee

What else can possibly go wrong for this team?

Wait, don’t answer that, don’t show me, just let it be. Can the basketball God’s please just let the Lakers play their game and execute with a full roster? How come the Celtics get to keep their entire roster injury free? How come Orlando isn’t having health issues? How come Lebron’s teammates – Delonte West is out isn’t he?

Either way, the Lakers are in a familiar place again and not happy campers. Andrew Bynum has yet another serious knee injury. In last night’s game against the Memphis Grizzlies, Kobe was driving to the basket when he fell to the ground and collided with Bynum, or shall we say Bynum’s knee. His upper body, shoulder, neck, and head, drove through Bynum’s right knee and bent it backward and inward. Bynum immediately collapsed in pain. He was carried off the court, not applying any pressure to his right leg, and did not come out of the locker room again.

Current reports state that Bynum has experienced a sprained right knee, x-rays are negative, and an MRI is to be conducted tomorrow to determine damage. The news of this injury is obviously very depressign to all of us Lakers fans and we can only truly hope for a speedy and full recovery for Andrew Bynum. We can’t afford to miss our big young star for any portion of this season and we look forward to his return. The look on Kobe’s face said it all during this game.

On the brighter side, there were some great signs of life during the game. Directly after the injury to Bynum, the team seemed to fall part and let the Grizzlies take advantage. None of the players seemed interested in playing but rather just waiting to hear about their young center’s health. I must agree that it’s difficult to just move on without the thought of your teammate’s health on your mind, but eventually, the game took precedence.

The bench really stepped up big in this game and brought the Lakers success in this game with 39 points and 22 assists. Kobe led the team with 25 points and 7 assists. Pau Gasol contributed by showing up his brother with 24 points and 8 rebounds. Derek Fisher had 14 points on 6-7 shooting and Lamar Odom added 13 points on 5-6 shooting to go with his 6 rebounds. Trevor Ariza finished with 11 points and 5 rebounds in 25 minutes.

With just a few minutes remaining in the 1st half, the Grizzlies pulled out to a 13 point lead that wouldn’t last too long. Going into halftime the Lakers only trailed by 6, 55-61, and came out tough in the 2nd half.

The Lakers outscored the Grizzlies by 15 in the 3rd quarter and 8 in the 4th quarter. It’s nice to see that the guys stepped out of the locker room understanding the current task at hand. “We came out much better mentally in the second half,” Gasol said. “Defensively, we did a much better job than we did in the first half.” The coaching staff must get a lot of praise for being able to work the players into the proper mindset to take over this game and pull out a win.

Phil Jackson desribed the situation perfectly, “Great disappointment. It took the wind out of the whole team in the first half, and that was a reason we played like we did. We have to stay optimistic about it. That’s all we can do.”

The Lakers next game is on Monday against the New York Knicks. It seems unlikely to me at this moment that Bynum will be playing in the next couple days, but let’s just hope for the best.