Enjoy it now, Laker fans

It's too bad newspapers aren't already running the NBA standings according to conference rankings rather than by division, because Laker fans really would want to clip and save today's standings.

Here, then, courtesy of NBA.com, is something you can print and save for posterity, while dreaming of a Lakers-Celtics NBA Final. (Right now, that's still all it is -- a dream.)

The presumption, of course, is that it's too good to last. The Lakers have played one game without the injured Andrew Bynum, barely outlasting the hapless Seattle-Oklahoma City SuperSonics (it's not too soon to start calling them that, is it?) on Monday night.

Now comes the tough stretch. Beginning with tonight's TNT game against Phoenix, the Lakers face five teams that are a combined 51 games over .500 -- home games against the Suns and Nuggets, a road trip to San Antonio and Dallas, back home to play Cleveland. After a bye (OK, it's a Tuesday night home game against the Knicks), the meat-grinder resumes with the start of that nine-game Grammy-necessitated road trip: stops in Detroit (19 over .500), Toronto (3 over), Washington (3 over), New Jersey (2 under), Atlanta (1 under) and Orlando (7 over).

If they survive that, maybe they can get well at the end of the trip, which takes them to Miami (21 under), Charlotte (8 under) and Minnesota (27 under).

If the doctors are correct and Bynum is out for eight weeks, the Lakers will have played 27 games without him by the time he returns March 11 against Toronto. If they go 14-13 without him, they'll be 39-24 when he gets back and probably somewhere in the middle of the pack in the West.

The most optimistic projection, considering who they play during that stretch, would be 17-12. That would put them at 42-21, on a pace for 55 victories and still in the mix for home court in the first round.

Anything better than that, and you'd have to conclude this team is special. And Laker fan doesn't even want to think of the alternative -- team goes in tank, sneaking into the playoffs as a low seed or missing them altogether, and Kobe resumes his "I Want Out" Tour.

Either way, the NBA season in Los Angeles just got even more interesting.

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