So when Bynum joined Gasol on the injury report after Wednesday’s OT win in Houston, there was pause for concern in Los Angeles.

Good news, however, came out of Thursday’s practice regarding both players.

An Improving Gasol Goes Through Practice
For the first time since October 22, Gasol participated almost fully in practice, working through everything not involving direct contact with teammates. Afterwards, he told assembled media members that while he felt pretty good, he remained “very doubtful” for Friday’s game against Memphis. Still, the All-Star said that it’s possible he plays in Sunday’s contest against New Orleans.

“We’re not ruling anything out,” he said. “We want to see how increasing the intensity of work feels, so we’re going to increase that tomorrow and Saturday also. We’ll see if Sunday is the day, or we’ll wait until Thursday (when L.A. plays Phoenix).”

Phil Jackson was pleased to have Gasol back on the floor, and put him through various conditioning, shooting and team drills.

“He did everything but the contact part of (practice),” said Jackson. “Just some operational things, some skills that we’ve been missing in our team game.”

After practice, Lamar Odom added that Gasol “looked good” to him.

Bynum Has a Strain, Not a Sprain
That was the good news on Bynum’s strained right elbow, which he had trouble lifting over his head after a very hard foul by Chuck Hayes and Carl Landry in the waning moments of Wednesday’s overtime win in Houston. According to Lakers spokesman John Black, a sprain refers to ligament or cartilage damage, while a strain affects the muscle or tissue, the strain being less serious. “He’s basically a game-time decision,” said Black. Bynum, who had 17 points, 17 rebounds, five assists and three blocks against Houston, said at practice that he was relieved, but remains doubtful to play on Friday.

“Tests are pretty good,” said Jackson. “He’s got a recovery rate that is going to take whatever the limits his discomfort put him (in) … He wants to play, he’s having a good run of it, he’s having a whole lot of fun getting all of those minutes out there so I’m sure he wants to get back as quickly as possible.”

Bynum said that it was “nothing too serious,” and only has to deal with some of the pain associated with the muscle strain. He joked that he was excited not to be facing Memphis – against whom, of course, he hurt respective knees in each of the past two seasons – but didn’t rule out a Sunday return against Emeka Okafor and New Orleans.

Gasol Timeline
Last week, we linked together the past three weeks of news surrounding Gasol’s hamstring. In a nutshell, we first learned that Gasol had strained his hamstring on Tuesday, Oct. 13, and he has missed eleven total games (five regular season) since that day. As Gasol did not feel rapid improvement at first, he was brought along slowly by L.A.’s training staff for three weeks, at which point (Monday, Nov. 2) he underwent an MRI. On Wednesday (Nov. 4) in Houston, we learned that the MRI had come up clean, and Gasol was medically cleared to resume basketball activities. That’s what happened at Thursday’s practice, and his activity level is expected to pick up on Friday and Saturday.

Filling in the Gaps Against the Grizzlies
Even if it’s just for one game, both Lamar Odom and Phil Jackson expect the remaining Laker bigs to pick up the (if considerable) 14-foot slack left by Bynum and Gasol. Jackson declined to reveal his lineup plan (while both are “doubtful,” neither Gasol nor Bynum has been officially ruled out even for Friday) but it’s expected that D.J. Mbenga and Josh Powell will see considerable action alongside Lamar Odom.

“Whatever it takes,” explained Odom. “We’ll probably play our small lineup, but we got guys who can come out there and help. Josh is prepared, and D.J. as well. We just go out and play our same game … everybody will step up. We’re used to it.”

While Mbenga’s seen only five minutes per game thus far, Powell has played closer to 11, and in that time managed to score six points per game thanks to 62 percent shooting, not to mention 2.4 rebounds. Both backup bigs have shown themselves capable of playing at either end of the floor, and along with Odom will be charged with containing Marc Gasol (17.6 points, 12.6 rebounds) and Zach Randolph (20.4 points, 7.8 rebounds) on the Grizzlies’ low block. Jackson also has the benefit of going even smaller and playing the capable Ron Artest, who weighs around 265 pounds and can guard almost anybody, at power forward.

“We just have to patch it up and play as well as we can,” said Jackson. “We’ve been shorthanded really since Pau got injured a couple of weeks ago and it’s stretched our team a little bit, but we have guys that can play.”