LOS ANGELES — Pau Gasol is not waiting for his hamstring to get strong. He and the Lakers are waiting for a waiver from the California State Athletic Commission.
Bringing back Gasol, at least right now, would be like loading plaster in the Lakers’ glove.

The defending champs did more defending Thursday night than the Phoenix Suns have seen this season, and those Suns have won at Boston and Miami already.
The Lakers improved to 7-1 without their All-Star forward, but that’s because they seem to have an All-Star center as well, as Andrew Bynum demonstrated throughout this commanding 121-102 victory.
Halfway through the third quarter, Bynum had 20 points and 10 rebounds. He basically led a Big & Tall fast break and fed Ron Artest for the first Lakers basket. He took Derek Fisher’s feed and scored the second basket. He bulldozed Phoenix’s Channing Frye for the third basket. He wound up with 13-of-18 shooting, 14 boards, three blocks and 26 points, and he and Kobe Bryant were 26 of 39 between them.
“We’re not very good in a grind-it-out game,” Suns coach Alvin Gentry said beforehand. He found himself in a grind-’em-up game instead, and it just made the imminent winter longer, for those who would prefer that the NBA is a place where competition happens.
Some competition will break out on Friday night in Denver, with the Lakers flying in for the second half of a back to back, and with the Nuggets still snarling over last season’s loss in the Western Conference finals.
The Lakers’ first 25 games will include only nine meetings with 2008-09 playoff teams. They have played just four in their first eight games and only one of those (Houston) on the road.
But then it’s quite entertaining to see a championship team vault to another level without an elite player. The only way the Lakers would look better with Gasol is in the second quarter, because that’s when Lamar Odom would beef up the second unit.
As it is, Odom is frolicking nicely with the starters. Bryant got lots of chances near the lane, and, late in the first quarter, Phoenix acknowledged reality (i.e., Jason Richardson and Grant Hill couldn’t guard him) and double-teamed him. On both occasions, Odom saw the situation, cut instantly to the basket, got Bryant’s pass and slammed.
“Right now there are times when Kobe has to put his imprint on the game early,” Phil Jackson said, unnecessarily adding, “But that’s okay.”
At halftime Phoenix’s starters had shot 11 for 37 and the whole team was 11 of 39 on two-point attempts. Perhaps you remember the days when Steve Nash and Leandro Barbosa and Amare Stoudemire drilled the Lakers in two first-round series. That was when Kwame Brown was the center, and Bynum was still in Kareem Abdul-Jabbar’s classroom. Bynum has played six games this year and has scored at least 17 points in five of them. He also has five double-figure rebound games.
Moral: Never give a dynasty a lottery pick.
The Suns had played Wednesday, although it was little more than a treadmill workout against New Orleans in what turned out to be Byron Scott’s final game coaching the Hornets. Still, they looked like a challenge for the Lakers. Without Shaquille O’Neal, they were built for speed again, and Nash was using words like “joyous” and “everybody being in the same movie” to describe the synchronicity.
And they were 8-1 with only three home games.
“It’s hard to believe they’re shooting what they’re shooting from the 3-point line (47.4 percent),” Jackson said, pregame. “I’m a little surprised with how well they’ve played and they probably are, too.”
Gentry, the former Clippers coach and a veteran of Jackson’s little provocations, just laughed.
“Whatever Phil says,” he said. “But I’m not that surprised.”
Although Jackson had said Gasol wouldn’t be back until Christmas, in order to muffle the constant questioning, Gasol probably will play sometime between now and Thanksgiving. The Lakers got him in February 2008 and the difference he made was striking. Now you wonder how they could be much better with him. Anything that deprives Bynum of the ball, at least against certain teams, is probably not good.
“When you know the team is coming to you inside, to take advantage of the matchups, that gets you excited,” Bynum said. “I’m in good shape this year, I’m able to handle the minutes. We had 78 points in the paint tonight (to Phoenix’s 48). I’ll take that.”
Jackson immediately began worrying about “altitude” and “lung burn” on Friday night in Denver. Everyone should worry about the day Gasol does get his waiver, and the winter forecast in the West becomes cold and unfair.