Got word from Andy, who was at practice in El Segundo early Saturday afternoon. He'll have more quotes and video coming, but in the meantime, enjoy the meat and potatoes:

• All in all, the news on Andrew Bynum was positive. An MRI revealed no tear in his left Achilles tendon, injured in the third quarter of Friday night's 104-96 win over Minnesota. Bynum left the arena in a walking boot.
• That boot was still on Bynum's foot today but he didn't require crutches, something making the young fella happy. Crutches are no fun for normally heighted folk, and are particularly brutal on the over-seven-foot set.
• Bynum will be re-evaluated in a week, meaning he'll definitely miss at the first three of the upcoming five-game road trip (at San Antonio, Oklahoma City, and Houston), but indicated he could miss the entire thing, sidelining him through the end of the month.
• Phil Jackson said Lamar Odom would slide into the open spot in the starting lineup, just as it was last season.
  

In terms of how this could impact the rotation, Jackson will have a few more options at his disposal this year than last season when Bynum went down. Swapping Ron Artest for Trevor Ariza leaves one more body available to suck up minutes at power forward as Pau Gasol moves to center. Kobe Bryant can happily slide to the three, leaving Jackson to choose between his four other guards to find the right backcourt combination for a given situation.

Last night, he also explored a three-guard set not including Bryant- Sasha Vujacic, Jordan Farmar, and Shannon Brown- something we might see a little more of when Kobe needs a breather. As always seems to happen when a player goes down, the onus goes to the non-Kobe guards to raise their level of play. Josh Powell and D.J. Mbenga are likely to get more minutes, but don't expect either, particularly Mbenga, to see their time skyrocket.

In terms of post play, the Lakers still ought to feature plenty of it, including more of Bryant on the block. He was enormously successful there early in the season when Gasol was sidelined with his bad hamstring. Artest and Odom will both find their way to the paint more often, too.

Hopefully the Lakers won't be without Bynum long. The kid was on something of a roll this month, averaging 15.3 points, 8.9 rebounds, and shooting 58 percent from the floor in only 27.7 minutes a night. Over Bynum's last five games (including Friday's) his shooting percentage was even higher, at 65 percent. (Unfortunately, that's been his trend as a pro: Start to dominate, then get hurt.) But assuming his absence runs in the neighborhood of a couple weeks, he should have time to get back into form before the playoffs begin in mid-April.

And, of course, the Lakers have shown the ability to win without him on the floor.

Again, more to come this afternoon...