LOS ANGELES — Hopefully, there will be future head-to-head matches to look forward to. Because a sellout crowd Tuesday night at Staples Center barely got a glimpse at the much-anticipated first meeting between two of the NBA's youngest centers, the Lakers' 21-year-old Andrew Bynum and Portland's 20-year-old Greg Oden.

Chalk up this confrontation as a boring stalemate as neither 7-footer played much of a factor in the Lakers' 96-76 opening night victory.

Oden injured his right foot in the first half and spent halftime getting X-rays. The results were inconclusive and he was diagnosed with a mid-foot sprain. Oden did not play in the second half.

In the first half, when the pair was on the court together, Bynum made only one basket, in four field-goal tries, and grabbed just two rebounds in 14 minutes.

Oden did not fare much better. He missed all four of his shots and went scoreless. However, Oden did snag five rebounds in 13 minutes and his one blocked shot was a Bynum jump hook in the lane that Oden vigorously swatted away.

Portland fell behind by 11 points in the opening minutes and never led nor forged a tie. The Lakers' advantage was 23 points in the fourth quarter, giving Coach Phil Jackson ample opportunity to play everyone in uniform.

The Trail Blazers shot 31 percent from the floor in the first half and warmed up just slightly in the second half to finish the game shooting 34.5 percent on their field-goal tries. Aside from Travis

Outlaw (8 of 15) and rookie Rudy Fernandez (5 of 10) no other Blazer who took more than a few shots was effective.

Was it suffocating Lakers defense or icy Portland shooting?

"Well, I'd have to think it's a combination of both," Jackson said. "The reality of it is we made them have to hurry shots, with (the shot clock) running down or take shots out of their comfort zone."

Kobe Bryant, as he has been on many occasions in the past, was the Lakers' catalyst. He scored 13 of his 23 points in the third quarter and mixed in with it 11 rebounds and five assists.

With the Blazers' defense keying on Bryant to begin the game, Lakers forward Pau Gasol had ample space to nice scoring roll. Gasol scored nine of the team's first 13 points and had 15 by halftime.

The Lakers' second unit, which could develop early into the NBA's best bench unit, got off to an ambitious start. Lamar Odom, Trevor Ariza, Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic, the four individuals destined to be part of the regular rotation, combined to score 34 points.

"I think we played well," Odom said. "Of course, you always feel like you could play better."

Jackson, who assessed the victory as a nice way to get the season started, felt the second unit was a bit disjointed at times but overall did all right.

"There's a little rhythm thing in their offense that they didn't quite get," Jackson said. "They didn't get the opportunities perhaps that they had before. But they really held their own, both halves when they went out on the floor."