Andrew Bynum started for the Lakers on Wednesday night for the first time since his return from offseason knee surgery.

Los Angeles beat New Orleans 103-88, snapping a three-game losing streak.

"We knew we were gonna have to make this move eventually, getting Drew out there on the floor," explained coach Phil Jackson. "It was going to take a little bit of a experimental stage, a "getting to know you" stage again. Fortunately, we came through it with flying colors. I thought it would be much more clumsy than it happened to be. So we're happy with that."

Bynum received some therapy and ice Thursday morning, but experienced no pain or swelling.

"The longer you're out there on the floor, the more comfortable you're going to be and the more in shape you're gonna get," Bynum said. "Everything just sorta works itself out."

Phil Jackson says he's "not happy" about the NBA's ownership of the Hornets and is not optimistic about the possibility of the team remaining in New Orleans.

Jackson also commented on how the NBA's takeover raises questions about where the final say on a Chris Paul trade, should it happen, comes from.

Andrew Bynum and Lamar Odom responded well to Phil Jackson's decision to reinsert the center into the starting lineup for the first time since returning from injury.

Odom scored 24 points on 10-of-15 shooting, his highest career scoring total in a game in which he came off the bench.

Bynum scored 18 points on 8-of-12 shooting.

The Lakers defeated the Hornets by a final of 103-88.

Kobe Bryant's shot was off on Tuesday night and he took the blame for the Lakers' loss to the Spurs.

"I couldn't put the ball in the basket and it snowballed from there," Bryant said. "It's my responsibility to make them."

He was 8-for-27 from the field, including a stretch of 13 straight missed field goals.

"I just have to put the ball in the damn hole," Bryant said. "It's my responsibility, it's my job."

Before Tuesday's game between Los Angeles and San Antonio, Bryant said he was ready for the showdown but that he wasn't sure if the "rest of the guys" were up for it.

Kobe Bryant is ready for Tuesday night's showdown with the Spurs, but he isn't certain if his Los Angeles teammates are ready.

On Saturday, Lakers head coach Phil Jackson said the coaching staff had been pointing to the Spurs game on the calendar for quite some time.

"We haven't really been pointing at anything, that's been one of the problems," Bryant said, disagreeing. "We don't really get too excited about anything anymore. I'm excited about this game. I'm excited about the challenge of it and hopefully the rest of the guys are too."

The Lakers have been mired in mediocrity of late, going 8-7 over their last 15 games. Bryant said he would like to see "more effort" on Tuesday in "everything" the team does on the court.

Los Angeles Lakers forward Devin Ebanks was assigned to the Bakersfield Jam, the Lakers? NBA Development League affiliate, it was announced today.  The assignment marks the 22nd time in the 2010-11 season an NBA player has been assigned to an NBA D-League affiliate, and it is the first assignment for Ebanks, a rookie out of West Virginia.

Ebanks (6-9, 215) has appeared in 12 games this season for the Lakers, averaging 2.9 points and 1.5 rebounds in 6.4 minutes. In the 2010 NBA Summer League, Ebanks was second on the Lakers in scoring, averaging 15.0 points in five games.

The first game between the new-look Heat and the defending-champion Lakers drew the highest television rating for an NBA regular-season game on ABC since 2004.

Miami's 96-80 victory over Los Angeles earned a 6.4 fast national rating Saturday.

The rating is up 45 percent from the Lakers-Cavaliers game that aired in the same slot in 2009.

It's the best since a 7.3 for another Heat-Lakers meeting on Christmas six years earlier.

The Lakers are expected to increase Andrew Bynum's minutes within the next week or two.

Bynum has played an average of 16.6 minutes per game since returning from knee surgery five games ago.

"I think our big lineup could [be an advantage]," Phil Jackson said.

"Of course, I don't think Andrew is ready to start yet or play those kind of minutes, but hopefully he will be in another week or two."

The Lakers were defeated by the Heat by a final score of 96-80 in a much-hyped Christmas Day showcase.

Kobe Bryant is confident in identifying the cause of the Lakers' 2-4 record this season against teams with winning records.

“Complacency,” Bryant told Yahoo! Sports. “We play too straight.

“We got to nip that [bleep] in the bud now.”

The Lakers also lost to the Bucks by 19 points this week.

“Part of our problem is we’re cocky and we feel like we shouldn’t lose, we can’t lose,” Lamar Odom said. “That’s been our problem, I think, this season, especially early on in this season. We were overconfident. …That’s the way we came in. It started in training camp.”

Ron Artest plans to announce the winner of his championship ring Saturday night at a club across the street from Staples Center.

Artest is conducting a charity raffle to benefit mental health awareness.

The raffle has raised well over $500,000 for his Xcel University charity, which will work with high-risk youth on mental health issues.