Lamar Odom Sprains Knee: [David Stefanini]

Lamar Odom sprained his knee in the first quarter of the Lakers win over the Rockets tonight. The Lakers have called this knee injury a "moderate MCL sprain".

The first indications are this is going to take a long time to heal. Right now it looks as if Lamar Odom is going to miss at least 1 month. Phil Jackson said he would be happy if Odom would be back by January.

What does this mean for the Lakers? This means look for Kobe to go back to his I'm going to dominate you and you can't stop me attitude. This is going to be bad for the Lakers however. For the first time in his career Kobe is playing for the team, now his side-kick is not going to be there. The Lakers are currently in first place, but they won't be able to stay there if Odom is out for this long. The Lakers are going to want to just stay within striking distance of the Suns over the next month.

The injury couldn't happen at a worse time either. 8 of the next 10 games for the Lakers are going to be on the road. If this team is going to take the next step, they are going to have to show the rest of the world they can win on the other teams floor. This first month and a half of this season they have shown they can win on theirs, now they must prove they can win anywhere.