George Sidelined at Least One Week

The Laker bench, short and struggling as it is, will get even shorter.

Devean George, averaging 6.5 points as the Lakers’ sixth man, is out for at least a week because of a sore left foot.

George took a red-eye flight after Sunday’s game against Chicago to have his foot examined by the Indianapolis doctor who performed his ankle surgery last year. An MRI exam and CT scan were negative.

George joins a growing list of injured Lakers: starter Kwame Brown and reserves Slava Medvedenko and Luke Walton.

“We’re hurting,” said Walton, who hoped to return Thursday against the Seattle SuperSonics. “But, I guess, better to get hurt now than later.”

Kobe Bryant is also dinged up with an assortment of minor injuries. He played 46 minutes Sunday, despite a bruised thigh, slightly sprained ankle and sore hip. He had 43 points and made 17 of 34 shots.

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Lamar Odom wasn’t open to a position change two weeks ago, but he was moved to power forward as a result of Brown’s hamstring injury.

“It wasn’t a big deal,” Odom said. “I’ll still play my same game.”

Odom had six points on two-for-four shooting against the Chicago Bulls. He had 10 rebounds and five assists. Odom expects to return to the initiator role in the triangle offense when Brown returns, probably next week.

“I guess if I filled in for him, when he comes back, I’d play where I started off playing,” Odom said.

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Lost among Bryant’s shot count Sunday was Andrew Bynum’s first NBA field goal.

Bynum, the No. 10 pick in this year’s draft, had logged more than 40 minutes in eight games before scoring on a dunk off a feed from Bryant in the fourth quarter against Chicago.

Bynum, who will get more playing time with Brown and Medvedenko sidelined, played the entire fourth quarter before coming out with 25 seconds left.

“It felt great that the coach had enough faith in me to play me at that time,” Bynum said. “I just went out there and got my first NBA bucket. I am really happy about that. A lot of my friends were talking about me because I wasn’t scoring.”

Bynum finished with four points, three rebounds and two blocked shots in nearly 18 minutes.