Lakers coach Phil Jackson expressed serious frustration over the absence of center Andrew Bynum prior to Sunday's loss to the Pacers.

Bynum is still recovering from offseason knee surgery and extra minutes have been forced upon Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.

"We put all our eggs in the basket of Andrew coming back and we hoped he'd be back by this time, by Nov. 15, by Thanksgiving time, by [our last] road trip, etc. We don't know when Andrew is coming back," Jackson said Sunday.

On Monday, Jackson clarified his comments, indicating that he's upset with the situation and not Bynum himself.

"I think it just has to be what it is. It's unfortunate that we have a lot of games right now on our schedule, but that happens. Three, three and a half games a week, and it kind of averages out," he said.

"We've been ending up playing a game every other day for the first part of the season, so here we are with a lot of games under our belt, and [Gasol] has played a lot of minutes. It's taken away from our effectiveness a little bit."

The coach made sure to complement Bynum's work ethic.

"He's a very willing worker. Absolutely no doubt," Jackson said.

The lengthy absence of Lakers center Andrew Bynum is starting to take a toll on fellow a big men Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom.

Gasol is averaging 38.7 minutes per game after averaging 37.0 last season. Odom is at 34.6 minutes per game after averaging 31.5 last season.

"We're playing Pau too many minutes [and we] don't have a backup for either he or Lamar right now, so that's a real problem," Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson said.

"We put all our eggs in the basket of Andrew coming back and we hoped he'd be back by this time, by Nov. 15, by Thanksgiving time, by [our last] road trip, etc. We don't know when Andrew is coming back."

Bynum participated in his first full-contact workout on Saturday since his July 28 operation and said he hopes to return to the court in three weeks.

"We hoped that it would have been three weeks about three weeks ago," Jackson said.

"So we're just waiting until everything kind of gets together and he gets on the court, and then we'll see what happens when he's on the court and practicing with us, and then we'll know approximately whether it's a week or two weeks or whatever away."

Lakers coach Phil Jackson spoke to Ron Artest about the forward's decision-making after the team's loss to the Pacers on Sunday night.

Artest grabbed an offensive rebound off a Kobe Bryant miss with 8.6 seconds remaining and Los Angeles trailing Indiana by three.

Jackson wanted a time-out, but Artest passed the ball back to Bryant for another last-second miss on a three-pointer.

"There were a couple situations I talked to him after the game, between he and I," Jackson said.

Artest said "I don't recall the conversation," when first asked about the chat but later revealed details about the discussion.

"He told me I should have called a timeout when I got the offensive rebound but it was hard to think about that when Kobe wanted the ball and Kobe was going to hit the 3," Artest said.

"When I saw Kobe I was going to give it to him. I asked [Jackson], 'Could everybody else on the court call the timeout since I have the ball, can somebody else call the timeout?' He said, 'Yes,' so he forgot to address it with everybody, so it's OK."

Lakers center Andrew Bynum is hoping to return to the floor in three weeks.

Bynum completed his first full-contact on-court workout on Saturday.

He is prepping to make his return from offseason surgery on his right knee and his rehab is in the home stretch.

"I want to [return] midway through December," Bynum said. "Hopefully, that's two weeks. It's looking more like a little bit later, probably. I have these two weeks here, then a week of practice. Realistically I'm looking at three weeks."

The Lakers lost to the Jazz on Friday night after Utah ended the game with an 11-0 run to notch a 102-96 victory.

"The 24-second clock operator," Los Angeles coach Phil Jackson said when asked why his team collapsed.

The Lakers trailed by two with less than a minute to go when Derek Fisher advanced the ball up the court in a transition opportunity.

The referees whistled the play dead because the shot clock was stuck at six seconds. The clock was reset, and the Lakers took the ball out on the sidelines with the Jazz given the chance to set up their defense.

On a previous time down the court, the Jazz had to reset their possession out of bounds in similar fashion, but that came on a play that started out of bounds on the baseline after a Lakers made basket, not a fast-break scenario.

"What was going on there?" Jackson asked.

"That stopped a break on our part. ... Fish had a nice rhythm going on a transition with a 3-point deficit, and it stops the ball and starts it out of bounds. It's not right; it's just not right."

The Lakers aren't expected to sign a center to fill the gap between now and when Andrew Bynum returns in a few weeks.

The stance could change, but Los Angeles is against the move currently as they are in luxury tax territory.

The Lakers have the NBA's highest payroll and lost depth in the paint when veteran Theo Ratliff was sidelined at least three to five more weeks after surgery to repair torn cartilage in his left knee.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson offered an apology on Friday for comments made earlier in the week about the Heat and their coaching situation.

When Miami fell to 8-6 this week, Jackson said: "The scenario that sits kind of behind the scene, is that eventually these guys that were recruited -- Bosh and James -- by Pat Riley and Micky Arison, the owner, are going to come in and say, 'We feel you [Riley] can do a better job coaching the team. We came here on the hopes that this would work,' and whatever, I don't know. That's kind of my take on it, is that eventually if things don't straighten out here soon, it could be the [Stan] Van Gundy thing all over again."

Jackson backed off on Friday.

"It was an off-handed remark about if things continue to go poorly for Miami, what might happen," he said. "But, obviously Stan felt that he had to say something. Unfortunately he got defensive about it. I didn't mean to do that. I should apologize because I do know about his situation."

That was the apology, but there was also a jab at Magic coach Stan Van Gundy, who called Jackson "ignorant" after the comments.

"Stan was going home to be with his family and that was his reason for leaving," Jackson said. "I have no idea about the rest of it; why he came back out [to a head coaching job] after retiring and being with his family. But, that's his decision and fine."

Magic coach Stan Van Gundy took exception to Phil Jackson's recent comments about Pat Riley returning to coach the Heat.

Riley replaced Van Gundy as Miami's coach in 2006 and led the team to an NBA title.

Van Gundy called Jackson's comments "inappropriate" and "ignorant" when he hinted that Riley should fire coach Erik Spoelstra and replace him on the bench.

"Phil has no idea what the Van Gundy situation was because, even though he coaches in our league, he certainly had no insight or knowledge of that," Van Gundy said.

"So an analogy he'd make to my situation would be totally useless because he doesn't have any clue what the situation was in that case."

Van Gundy resigned in December 2005 after the Heat went 11-10 through the early stretch of their season, he cited personal reasons for the decision.

"To second-guess another coach and comment on a situation he knows nothing about -- it's inappropriate. And it's also ignorant," Van Gundy said. "I don't mean that commenting on Phil's intelligence. He's obviously a very smart guy. I mean it as ignorant [in that] he doesn't know what that situation was and he doesn't know what the situation is now.

"I don't think, unless their relationship has changed drastically, that [Jackson] and Pat talk on a regular basis. So I doubt he would have any information whatsoever on what's going on in Miami."

An MRI on the right knee of Lakers center Andrew Bynum came back negative.

Lakers spokesman John Black said the MRI, the first Bynum has had since before training camp, showed nothing "abnormal" or "unexpected."

Bynum is expected to start individual jumping and lateral-movement exercises this week and return to full-court contact drills in the next two weeks.

He is now expected to return to action in early December.

An autopsy conducted Tuesday on a two-year-old boy who plunged from a skybox after a Lakers game determined that his death was an accident.

Police and paramedics said Lucas Anthony Tang suffered massive head injuries in the Sunday night fall at Staples Center, but Los Angeles County coroner's Capt. John Kades said the official cause of death was multiple traumatic injuries.

The toddler fell from a third-level luxury box and landed on a row of seats minutes after the Lakers beat the Warriors. He died at a hospital.

The Lakers held a moment of silence for Tang before Tuesday night's game against the Bulls.