The good news is that there is no tear or rupture.

“It’s not a torn Achilles,” said Phil Jackson on Saturday. “We just hope that the time is not extended. He’s a very optimistic young man, so (his reaction) wasn’t that bad. I was pleased with that.”

Bynum will be reevaluated in a week, and will not play until that time, meaning that the young center will definitely miss Sunday’s game against Washington, and road games at San Antonio (Wednesday) and Oklahoma City (Friday) and most likely Houston (Saturday).

L.A. then plays in New Orleans on Monday, March 29, and in Atlanta on March 31.

Jackson said that Lamar Odom would start in Bynum’s place, moving Pau Gasol over to the center position.

The bad news: Andrew Bynum left the game early in the third quarter with a left Achilles strain, though he did manage to run up and down the court before checking out and exiting to the locker room under his own power.

Bynum, who scored 11 points on 4-of-5 shooting with five rebounds in 20 minutes, will be re-evaluated on Saturday.

“We’re a little concerned, he’ll probably miss a little while,” said Phil Jackson. “We’ll have to use our practice tomorrow to reassess how we’re going to play without Andrew for a little bit here.”

The proverbial show had to go on, of course (especially with Tom Cruise, Katie Holmes, Leonardo DiCaprio, Penelope Cruz, Javier Bardem and Jack Nicholson sitting courtside), and after the Lakers gave up a 10-point halftime lead as Minnesota claimed a 68-66 edge late in the third, L.A. turned the defense back up and cruised to an 8-point victory.

Pau Gasol continued a red hot stretch that featured 76 percent shooting in his past three games to score 17 points on 7-of-13 plus a team-high 14 rebounds, while Bryant had nine of his season-high 13 assists in the first half alone. L.A.’s bench chipped in 42 points, including 18 from Lamar Odom, who nailed four 3-pointers.

As the Lakers were up comfortably for most of the game, Bryant played just 32 minutes, Ron Artest 33, Gasol 34 and least of all Derek Fisher (16), as Jackson gave some addition run to Jordan Farmar.

Struggling with his shooting of late, Farmar had managed to hit just 2-of-17 field goals in his last five games while playing sporadically, but he managed 4-of-8 makes and 3-of-4 free throws for 12 points off the pine, plus six rebounds and two assists in 27 minutes.

Playing at STAPLES for the first time in 10 days, the Lakers shot poorly, making only 41.5 percent of their attempts, but made much of their money at the free throw line in making 29-of-35 attempts as the Wolves took only 11 themselves, making eight. Kevin Love notched a 19-point, 11-rebound double-double for Minnesota, and Darko Milicic was effective inside with 16 points and 12 boards before leaving with an injury late in the game.

Speaking of injuries … Bynum’s comes at an unfortunate time as he had been playing his best basketball of the season, averaging 15.9 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.8 blocks on 56.8 shooting in March, including averages of 20.0 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks on 63.3 percent shooting in his last four contests.

Make sure to check Lakers.com tomorrow for a Bynum update, but until then, your numbers:

POSTGAME NUMBERS
1 Courtside high-five given to Tom Cruise by Kobe Bryant, in the second quarter as Andrew Bynum took the first of two free throws. That’s always fun.

9 Assists for Kobe Bryant in the first half alone. He finished with 13 on the game, a season high.

14 Rebounds from Pau Gasol to lead the Lakers. He’s averaging 11 boards a game on the season, the most on the team.

24 More free throws taken by the Lakers than the Wolves.

41.5 L.A.’s shooting percentage in their first game at STAPLES Center in 10 days.

Bynum finished the game against Minnesota with 11 points and five rebounds on 4-of-5 shooting in 20 minutes.

The 7-foot center had been playing his best basketball of the season, averaging 15.9 points, 9.4 rebounds and 1.8 blocks on 56.8 shooting in March, including a recent 4-game tear where he’d averaged 20.0 points, 10.3 rebounds and 2.0 blocks on 63.3 percent shooting.

Stay tuned for updates on Lakers.com, as Bynum will be re-evaluated on Saturday.

The Wolves are among the league’s youngest teams, a franchise in rebuilding mode that was not expecting to win many games in 2009-10, but rather assembling cap space and young assets for the future.

Sure enough, they haven’t won many games in 2009-10, a process not helped by Al Jefferson’s recovery from ACL surgery and last season’s No. 5 overall pick Kevin Love missing 22 games to injury.

Minnesota is just 14-55, and is struggling mightily of late, losing 11 straight and 17-of-18 after the Timberwolves’ lone 4-game winning streak this season, when they beat the Clippers, Knicks, Mavericks and Grizzlies in succession from Jan. 29 to Feb. 6.

Four games is the current length of L.A.’s winning streak, three of which came on the road (Phoenix, Golden State, Sacramento) after a home victory over Toronto, allowing the Lakers to reach 50 wins to just 18 losses.

The numbers are certainly daunting heading into Friday night’s contest between the two teams at STAPLES Center: the Lakers have lost five games at home all year, the Wolves have won five games on the road; Minnesota scores 98.1 points per game and concedes 107.7 points per game, L.A. scores 103.0 and allows 97.0; Minnesota has trouble with big teams in particular, the Lakers are perhaps the biggest. And so on.

Yet the Lakers have declared themselves to be in the business portion of their schedule, worrying less about opponents and more about their own level of play. Kobe Bryant was among other players this week to refuse to begin thinking about L.A.’s upcoming 5-game road trip before dealing first with Minnesota and then Washington on Sunday.

“We’re playing hard and want to continue to get better with execution all across the board and make sure we play with the right energy,” said Bryant. “We just have things that we need to work on and focus on for ourselves. It’s not about our next opponents, it’s about doing what we need to do to be a better team.”

For a detailed video breakdown of the Timberwolves from assistant coach Brian Shaw, scroll back to the top of the page and press play.

Follow Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) on Twitter.

The Spaniard participated in Friday’s shootaround and will play against the Minnesota Timberwolves.

Among his most interesting comments came as he detailed his donation of a basketball court in Kobe Bryant’s name to his native Democratic Republic of Congo:

I always say, when we talk about Michael Jordan we always set him apart. But people gotta realize now, it’s not just Michael Jordan. It’s Kobe too. I told him, “I’m going to give you the best gift you’ve ever had … I’m building a basketball court in Congo with your name on it. People they love you there. You helped me to get a ring, I’m going to give you something back. I’m going to give you a basketball court with your name – that’s something nobody else can have. Even Michael Jordan never had that. I told him, “You’re going to give people hope. There are kids that are stealing, killing, (doing drugs) … instead I want them to play basketball at the Kobe … Bryant … Court.” It’s going to be in Kinshasa*. They are going to start working on it in a couple of weeks. Everything’s already been set up through my foundation.

After L.A. defeated Golden State on Monday night, we had a chance to ask Kobe about the honor:

It makes me feel great. He told me he was going to have a surprise for me, and something he and I talk about often is visiting Congo and speaking to some of the kids. DJ and I have a really close relationship. This is a tremendous honor, something that I didn’t expect. (DJ does) a ton for (the people) over there. It’s something that people don’t hear about, but he doesn’t do it for the attention, he does it because it’s something that’s close to his heart. I absolutely have to (go visit).

Follow Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) on Twitter.

Inactives
Lakers: Luke Walton (back)
Kings: Jon Brockman

Starters
Lakers: Fisher, Bryant, Artest, Gasol and Bynum
Kings: Beno Udrih, Tyreke Evans, Donte Green, Carl Landry and Spencer Hawes

Pregame Notes
(Editor’s note: We were a bit light on pictures right after the game, as you can see by the photo above) For a full preview of the contest, CLICK HERE. Details include Sacramento’s adjustment after the Kevin Martin for Carl Landry trade, Tyreke Evans’ play and what L.A. specifically wants to do to counter certain Kings’ plays such as the high screen and roll with Spencer Hawes and Beno Udrih.

First Quarter
8:15 Andrew Bynum was an absolute man among small children in the paint in the game’s first four minutes, during which he dunked three times and laid in a fourth time, the Kings flailing limbs his way to no avail. That helped the Lakers to an early 11-4 lead in front of a terrific, energized crowd.

6:16 The Bynum-inspired start was all well and good, like the past season of “Friday Night Lights.” But the next two minutes were more like “The Jerry Springer Show,” (guilty pleasure or not) as the Kings rattled off a 9-0 run, the first seven points scored by Spencer Hawes (who happened to set a career high with 30 points against L.A. on New Year’s night.

0:02.4 The final six minutes swung the pendulum back L.A.’s way, in a big way, thanks almost exclusively to Kobe Bryant. No. 24 reeled off 13 straight points himself, and the Lakers conceded only four at the other end to build a 28-17 lead after the first quarter. Feel free to align Kobe’s dominant stretch with the “Real World - Road Rules Challenge” series (OK, last random TV reference for a while, sorry). Bynum, meanwhile, finished the quarter with 11 points and six rebounds, already approaching his solid recent stretch that’s had him average nearly 20 points and 10 rebounds over his last three games.

Second Quarter
9:46 No TV reference this time, but feel free to think of a really bad show as the Lakers’ bench conceded a 10-2 run to start the half. The Farmar-Brown-Morrison-Odom-Gasol fivesome played right into Sacramento’s hands by trying to run up and down, letting the Kings right back into the game.

6:06 After a Tyreke Evans layup, the scoreboard read “Kings 20, Lakers 6″ in the first six minutes of the second, continuing what has been a deplorable stretch of second quarters for L.A. of late, to the point that Phil Jackson has mentioned the hard-to-explain issue more than once. But thanks to the solid first quarter, the Lakers trailed by just one after a Kobe jumper.

0:51 The final half of the second saw the teams swap leads several times as good things continued to happen for L.A. when Bynum touched the ball inside, whether intentional or not. After Bryant’s driving attempt (his 18th shot of the half) rimmed out, Bynum broke through for an offensive board, then stuffed it back for yet another dunk. Moments later, Kobe spotted Bynum alone under the rim and lofted an alley-oop pass for, you guessed it, another dunk that had the 7-footer at 17 points with eight boards. It wasn’t like L.A. was calling much for ‘Drew, either, as much of his action came off five offensive boards.

Third Quarter
8:57 Broken record alert: L.A. has success when consistently feeding Bynum and Gasol on the block. Pau nailed his sixth field goal in seven attempts moments after Bynum made his ninth in 12 attempts, drawing praise from the efficiency gods (combined 15-of-19, 79 percent). They were connecting with as much consistency as Michael Jackson songs on “Thriller.”

3:02 So, it wasn’t exactly Artest’s best game on offense, as he’d missed his first four shots before muscling his way to a left-handed layup to put L.A. up 69-62. Yet it was still funny when he kissed his bicep and looked towards Sacramento’s bench after the make. Ron Ron.

0:01.0 When Bryant went to the bench to begin the second quarter, the Kings went on a big run (10-2). With two minutes left in the third, he and Fisher went back to the pine, but the Lakers got four straight buckets from four different players (Gasol, Vujacic, Brown and Odom) including Odom’s pretty lefty layup with just a second to go, helping the Lakers take a 77-68 lead into the fourth.

Fourth Quarter
10:27 Here’s what I typed on Twitter to describe a nasty finish to a great open to the fourth (you can always follow @LakersReporter for live game updates): Shannon Brown officially violated Sacramento air space. What an absurd one-handed thunder jam. Lakers up 16. Brown’s slam came from the right wing, courtesy of a slick Gasol pass from the middle of the floor. The Spaniard can lead the break. The hammer capped a 7-0 run to open the quarter.

5:17 Lakers opponents generally play with an Ivy-League-dreaming-high-school-kid-before-the-S.A.T.’s effort level, and the Kings were no exception, cutting the 16-point lead in half on a baseline layup for Evans, who was approaching a triple-double with 19 points, 11 rebounds and eight assists. Kobe was on TD watch as well with 27, nine rebounds and six dimes.

2:07 Bynum’s two free throws not only put the Lakers up 11, the game well in hand, gave him 21 points with his 12 rebounds, joining Gasol (26 and 11) with 20-10 double-doubles. Kobe was actually just one board away from joining them, which would mark the first time three Lakers players have done so in one game since 12/21/84, when guys named Magic, Kareem and Worthy did it. Unfortunately, Kobe would be stuck on nine boards … but on the bright side, the Lakers won the game, 106-99.

That marked three straight road wins for the Purple and Gold, who return home for a two-game stretch against Minnesota and Washington (Friday and Sunday). Until then, your numbers:

POSTGAME NUMBERS
3 Lakers with at least 20 points and nine rebounds, as Kobe Bryant went for 30 and nine (plus seven assists), Pau Gasol posted 28 points and 12 rebounds and Andrew Bynum 21 points and 12 boards. Had Kobe nabbed one more rebound, the trio would have been the first to reach 20+ and 10+ double-doubles since Magic Johnson, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and James Worthy did so in 1984.

9 Lakers turnovers, much improved from the 24-turnover game in Golden State the night before.

10 Free throws missed by the Lakers, including an 8-for-14 struggle for Bryant at the stripe.

27 Points scored by Lakers not named Kobe, Pau or Andrew.

45 Combined points (25), rebounds (11) and assists (9) for Kings rookie Tyreke Evans, just an assist away from a triple-double a game after he missed the coveted TD by one rebound.

Follow Mike Trudell (@LakersReporter) on Twitter.

Do the Kings play a bit harder against the Lakers than they do in general? How has the loss of Kevin Martin and acquisition of Carl Landry affected the team? How good is Tyreke Evans? Are Jason Thompson, Spencer Hawes and Landry at all equipped to deal with Andrew Bynum, Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom?

First things first, the Kings do appear to raise their level of play against the Lakers … but that’s nothing new for the Purple and Gold. Sacramento played very well in each of L.A.’s two games against the Kings, first in a double overtime contest at ARCO Arena on Dec. 26, then in the New Years Day game that demanded Kobe Bryant’s buzzer-beating 3-pointer as a Lakers’ bail out. Yet the Kings simply haven’t been able to match L.A.’s talent of late, and the Lakers have won 8-of-10 games including six straight.

Since trading Martin to Houston for Landry, the Kings have gone 5-8, including a home win over Utah and road win in Houston (Landry put up 22 and 10 in that one). The Lakers game marks the fourth of five straight home games that began with a victory over Toronto, a loss to Portland and Sunday’s 114-100 victory over Minnesota in which Evans just missed a triple-double with 29 points, 11 assists and nine rebounds. In related news, he’s pretty good even without a completely reliable outside shot.

Evans, in fact, is likely the front runner for Rookie of the Year (even as Golden State’s Stephen Curry, who was terrific against L.A. on Monday, games steam) on the strength of some outstanding numbers: 20.3 points, 5.6 assists and 5.1 rebounds with 1.47 steals in 37.2 minutes. Landry, meanwhile, gave the Lakers problems off Houston’s bench last season and earlier this season, and has been solid* with averages of 17.0 points and 6.8 rebounds in 37 minutes.
*Solid, not great, due to the 37 minutes. Neither Bynum nor Odom play over 30 minutes per game.

Among L.A.’s chief concerns with the Kings is Evans’s unique ability to get all the way to the rim and finish, particularly in transition, and both Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol are on protect-the-basket alert. Speaking of the paint, Landry’s had success with a bevy of pump fakes and via offensive rebounds, another point of emphasis for the Lakers.

An additional area of focus will be doing a better job with Spencer Hawes, who hurt the Lakers at STAPLES with his ability to step out and shoot the ball out of screen and rolls sets often involving Beno Udrih. Hawes went off for a career-high 30 points in that game, including 4-of-5 3-pointers, plus 11 rebounds.

The Lakers also hope Andrew Bynum’s upward trend continues, as the center who wasn’t even playing at this time of year last season due to an MCL tear has averaged 19.6 points and 9.6 rebounds in his last three games. The Kings will try and use Jason Thompson (12.6 points, team-high 8.5 rebounds) to go at Bynum, but it’s clearly a tough matchup

To catch all the action, tune into KCAL or 710 ESPN radio for a 7 p.m. start.

Inactives
Lakers: Luke Walton
Warriors: Ronny Turiaf, Andris Biedrins

Starters
Lakers: Fisher, Bryant, Artest, Gasol and Bynum
Warriors: Stephen Curry, Monta Ellis, Corey Maggette, Anthony Tolliver, Chris Hunter

Pregame Notes
Kobe Bryant showed up a few hours early in Oakland to get some additional shots up, which Derek Fisher later explained is something he’d prefer to do more often but hasn’t been able to as much this season due to various injuries. We also heard from Phil Jackson, which you can read about by CLICKING HERE.

First Quarter
7:30 The Lakers were hotter than Sasha Vujacic after getting called for a foul to start the game, nailing all six of their shots and all three free throws, but three turnovers and two threes from D-League call up Anthony Tolliver kept Golden State within two points. L.A. then promptly missed its next six shots in a 16-all tie. Not yet into the game was D.J. Mbenga, whom I bring up as he sat down with us for an extended interview in which he discussed building a basketball court in his native Congo with Kobe Bryant’s name on it, fashion, his nickname and much more.

2:52 Nobody was happier that Ron Artest drained two wide open 3-pointers than Kobe Bryant, who assisted on each when the Warriors’ defense overcompensated on the other side of the floor. Artest has been L.A.’s best 3-point shooter this season, flirting with 40 percent for most of the year before dipping to around 38 percent of late. Kobe knows quite well how much more difficult the Lakers are to beat if Artest’s 3-ball is going down, and went immediately towards Ron Ron with a “Yeah boy!” look after the second make.

0:02.5 Pau Gasol was efficient and effective throughout the first, matching Kobe’s nine points on 4-of-5 shooting, plus three rebounds and an assist. One area that he wasn’t happy with: his free throw shooting. The Spaniard clanked his first three before making the fourth a game after shooting just 1-of-5, but he remains near 80 percent on the season. Nonetheless, L.A. took a 39-32 lead into the second quarter.

Second Quarter
9:02 After a Steve-Kerr-circa-1996 efficient offensive first quarter that saw L.A. dish 13 assists on 14 field goals (66.7 percent shooting), the team’s first field goal of the second came three minutes in on an Odom put back. In related news, G.S. stayed within three points.

3:36 More of the same continued through the second, L.A. scoring easily but missing free throws, and giving up a bit more than they liked defensively. Bryant earned a trip to the line but missed the second, the seventh miss of the half from the Purple and Gold, and C.J. Watson hit a J at the other end to bring his squad within one at 57-56. A clear positive for the Lakers, however: balance. Kobe had taken nine shots, Gasol six, Artest and Bynum five and Odom four.

2:03 Before the game, Phil Jackson warned against the Lakers turning the ball over, recognizing that it would lead directly to run outs and points at the other end for the Warriors. Oops. Bynum tried a cross court pass that was easily intercepted by Watson and turned into a layup, giving G.S. a 59-57 lead, L.A. already totaling 10 turnovers. It got worse quickly, the Lakers committing five more turnovers in the final two minutes to help the Warriors claim a 65-59 halftime lead. Jackson may as well have gone reverse psychology and said “Turn the ball over please.” Fortunately for L.A., a six-point deficit to the Warriors at halftime isn’t exactly intimidating, particularly with how easily scoring came when not turning it over (58.3 percent shooting, 20 free throw attempts).

Third Quarter
9:57 Great defense to start the third could have fairly been expected for a Lakers’ team that’s done so quite frequently (not frankly), but three quick field goals, including a Stephen Curry three, pushed Golden State’s lead to nine, its highest of the game.

4:25 Remember when G.S. was up nine? Since then, the Lakers did indeed put up the bunker (WWI style? No? OK.) on defense and converted nearly without fail at the other end, putting together a 20-5 run that created a 83-78 lead when Gasol followed Bynum’s dunk with a 7-foot hook. The two bigs had combined for 36 points (20 for Pau) and 19 rebounds (12 for Bynum) at that point to lead the Lakers.

0:33.7 With an angry, to quite angry expression on his face after not getting what he thought were a series of fouls called on Warriors’ reaches, Bryant finally get to the line in transition and sank both foul shots to cap a 35-22 quarter dominated by L.A. Bryant had reached his season high of eight turnovers, but also managed 20 points with four assists heading into the final quarter.

Fourth Quarter
10:09 Monta Ellis, the NBA’s sixth leading scorer with 25.6 points per game, trailing only LeBron, Durant, Carmelo, Kobe and Wade, couldn’t have dropped a shot into the Pacific Ocean off the Bay Bridge on the way into Oakland tonight. He was only 2-for-19 (10.5 percent) after another missed layup. In a slight bit of fairness, he was charged with guarding Kobe at the other end for much of the game. Meanwhile, Odom went the other way with efficiency, making all six of his attempts for 15 points with nine boards, while Gasol was 9-of-12 for 22 points.

3:18 Curry’s fifth three was but a temporary lifeline for the Warriors, as Bryant immediately answered with a three of his own, and Fisher followed with an alley-oop to Gasol in transition to put the Lakers up 119-108 with time running out on G.S.

0:23.0 Wait a second… Ellis, who as we mentioned literally couldn’t throw a stone in the ocean from a boat, pulled up for a transition three after forcing Bryant’s ninth turnover (Kobe thought it was a foul and had a good argument) to cap a super-quick 9-0 run to an almost indifferent Lakers team that made it just a two-point margin. Golden State still had to foul, and Shannon Brown made both free throws with 13.9 seconds to play. After an ensuing Ellis layup and Bryant’s improbable miss of 1-of-2 free throws, both Curry and Ellis had looks at potential game-tying threes, but both missed. The final attempt, from Ellis, seemed to hang on the rim for about three seconds, bouncing this way and that, before ultimately spinning out. Lakers win, barely.

Up next for the Purple and Gold is a Tuesday evening tilt against Sacramento, but until then, your numbers:

POSTGAME NUMBERS
9 Turnovers for Kobe Bryant, to surpass his previous season high of eight in Chicago on Dec. 15. Andrew Bynum added eight turnovers of his own (Golden State had only five as a team to L.A.’s 24), masking otherwise good games from both players. Kobe finished with a team-high 28 points with four assists, while Bynum was good for 19-and-14 double-double with three blocks.

21.7 Field goal percentage for Monta Ellis, who started just 2-of-19 from the field before making three of his final four attempts.

35 Total rebounds snatched by Bynum (14), Pau Gasol (nine) and Lamar Odom (12) who controlled the paint throughout for L.A. That was more than Golden State’s total of 29 rebounds; the Lakers finished with 56 as a team, spurred in part by the turnover discrepancy.

40 Minutes played by Kobe Bryant on the front end of a back-to-back.

77.3 Combined shooting percentage for Odom (7-of-9) and Gasol (10-of-13) for 17 and 26 points, respectively.

An hour after Bryant completed his shooting regimen and started his stretching routine in the locker room, Derek Fisher said that Kobe’s various injuries throughout the season (broken finger, sprained ankle among others) have affected No. 24’s preferred routine.

“He hasn’t been able to practice as much as he (could) in the past,” said Fisher. “Working out before and after the game and things like that … but he’s been getting (to the arena) at 4:30 (p.m.) to try and ramp himself up for 7:30.”

This season, Bryant has put up 44 and 20 points in two games against Golden State, missing the third match up while recovering from his ankle injury. He added 11 and six assists, respectively, in those two Lakers wins, and is looking for a season sweep of the Warriors.

Phil Jackson Pregame
Some notes from Jackson’s pregame session:
- Jackson noted the edge that he expects Golden State to play with since this is the fourth meeting between the teams and that L.A. has won the first three. Clearly, no team ever wants to lose, but four times is a different beast.

- While of course pounding the ball down low is a key, Jackson said it’s not so much about what Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol do, but how L.A.’s guards manage to control the game and how well they’re able to feed the post. Golden State is a small, active team that tries to disrupt passing angles and prevent easy entry passes, of which Jackson is aware.

- Jackson mentioned the fluky nature of the Lakers having such a multitude of hand injuries, the roll call reading: Kobe, Lamar Odom, Ron Artest, Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown.

- L.A.’s head coach isn’t so much watching the scoreboard to see how far behind Denver or Dallas is, but instead simply keeping an eye on all teams that the Lakers might face.