Mike Bresnahan’s take on the Lakers

Mike Bresnahan covers the Lakers for The Times and ties up loose ends on the day of his designated “Lakers game of the week.” The Lakers play tonight at Chicago.

It’s tough to be right so often when covering the Lakers.

I’m currently 6-1 in picking the winner in their game of the week (7-1 after tonight . . . see below), but it’s time to bring the prognosticating to a new level.

The Lakers have 20 games in back-to-back sets over the next eight weeks, so let’s break it all down: I’ve got them going 7-3 in the first game and a somewhat paradoxical 8-2 in the second game, when fatigue often plays a part. (Luckily for the Lakers, their second-night competition will be teams with a 105-123 combined record coming into Monday’s games. There are plenty of Milwaukees, New Yorks and Indianas to help their cause.)

Notable highlights: A Christmas Day victory against Cleveland; another trouncing of the too-short Suns (Dec. 28), and a home victory against Denver (Feb. 4), which might be their toughest Western Conference foe.

Notable low-lights: A Jan. 31 loss in Boston, where the locals still remember the Lakers’ convincing victory last season; yet another loss in Portland (Feb. 6), and a tough two-step in Texas, where they’ll lose in both San Antonio (Jan. 12) and Dallas (Jan. 13).

Notable thoughts: I’m already back-to-backed out after this analysis. And they’ve barely even begun.

Q&A of the day

Q: With Lamar Odom shooting 53.5% from the charity stripe, do you think teams will start intentionally fouling him in crunch time? Or even Ron Artest (61.8%).

-- David Andrade, Los Angeles A: While waiting for my journalism career to take shape, I was a substitute P.E. coach for grade-school kids for a few years after college. Why does that matter?

Because I knew a ton of 8-year-olds who could shoot free throws better than these guys.

What’s Odom’s deal? He was a 70.1% career free-throw shooter before this season. The Hack-a-Lamar might come into the picture soon.

And what is Artest’s problem? He was 74.8% last season from the free-throw line!

I’ll track down some of those grade-school kids to conduct a clinic, if necessary.

Final thought

Not really sure how the Bulls became my game of the week. Maybe because the Lakers also play Milwaukee and New Jersey over the next few days (yawn).

No way the Lakers lose this one, even if Odom and Artest are intentionally fouled every trip down the court in the fourth quarter.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

twitter.com/Mike_Bresnahan