An hour prior to L.A.’s Game 1 tip against Denver, Lamar Odom answered a few questions in the locker room about his sore lower back, which he will not allow to limit him against Denver.
“It’s not the time for that, right?” he said. “No excuses at this time of the year. ”
But make no mistake … It’s sore.
“There’s a little patch of fluid that just kind of lays on the spine, and it’s not going to go anywhere until I finish playing,” explained Odom.
He did acknowledge, however, that his back is feeling better on a daily basis; Odom got a nice boost on Tuesday by lifting weights for the first time since his Game 4 fall in Houston. That, to Odom, was as good a sign as any that he’s progressing.
“(Lifting) helped me get my blood flowing and helped me get some energy,” he explained. “I need the weight room, it helps me stay strong.”
He certainly prefers lifting to the shot that he received prior to Game 5 in the Houston series, which helped limit the inflamation in his back for that game but bothered him in the morning.
“The shot, to me, kind of tricked my body into feeling like it wasn’t hurt,” he said. “But the next day, I was feeling kind of sore. So I’d rather not do it. El natural. That’s what they call me.”
On his way out of the practice facility, we caught up with Luke Walton to see how his 
