The Los Angeles Lakers, at least for the moment, are the best team in the NBA and also the best road team. They showed it in handing the Cavs a 101-91 defeat, their first loss in 24 games at The Q this season.

It closed a 6-0 road trip for the Lakers (41-9) that included wins in Boston and Cleveland. During the trip, they dealt with the loss of center Andrew Bynum to a knee injury, the shake-up of a trade Saturday afternoon and Kobe Bryant losing his Sunday brunch at halftime in between getting hooked up to an IV.

Despite these issues, the Lakers showed more focus and flexibility in their game plan than their hosts.

Lamar Odom, the mercurial Lakers forward, picked a good day to have his best game of the season.

It cannot be overlooked that the Cavs (39-10) had their worst second half of the season offensively.

All of their usually trustworthy parts, LeBron James especially, seemed to shiver. However, the Lakers had a major role in that as well.

James scored just 16 points, his second fewest of the season, on a season-worst 5-of-20 shooting, though he did have eight rebounds and 12 assists.

"You have to give the Lakers credit," said Cavs coach Mike Brown, going to one of his standard lines after a loss. This time, though, he really meant it.

"They did a nice job of sticking with their game plan," Brown said.

The game plan, however, changed during the contest. With Bryant obviously ill and scoring just 19 points, the Lakers again went to their big men, as they did the previous time the teams met.

In that Jan. 19 game in L.A., the Lakers used Bynum and Pau Gasol in the post to hammer the undersized Cavs, who were without center Zydrunas Ilgauskas. So this time, there was no Bynum and there was Ilgauskas, so the old-fashioned dump-it-to-the-big-man-on-the-block wasn't as workable.

So the Lakers adapted and were - and this is where it gets scary for the usually defensively sound Cavs - more effective than before.

This is where Odom came in. When the 6-10 veteran is playing well, he's a matchup problem for every team in the league, and he was playing very, very well under the circumstances.

When he's at his best, Odom is too quick on the drive for Ben Wallace or Anderson Varejao, too big for Wally Szczerbiak inside and way too savvy for rookie J.J. Hickson. All of them took turns dealing with him, and all of their weaknesses were exposed.

By feeding Odom on cuts, he was just as dangerous as Bynum and Gasol ever were in the post. By getting in proper position when Gasol was doubled, Odom thwarted the Cavs' help defensive setups. By cherry-picking when Hickson or another player were overaggressive, he swooped in on the weak side for offensive rebound after offensive rebound.

He finished with a season-high 28 points and a season-high 17 rebounds, with a season-high seven offensive rebounds. In the third quarter alone, he had 15 points and 10 rebounds, three of them direct putbacks for hoops. It was the guts of the turning point in the game when the Lakers went from 10 points down at the half to five ahead going into the fourth quarter.

"That was one of the best games he's played for us," Lakers coach Phil Jackson said, referring to Odom's five seasons with the Lakers. "I think it was the total package of his game."

Add Gasol's 18 points, 12 rebounds and six assists, and it is understandable why the Cavs gave up 62 points in the paint, which was devastating.

Add to that the Lakers' defensive strategy, which was to pack the paint with their big men and entice the Cavs to shoot outside jumpers, and things worked perfectly for the visitors. The Cavs survived for a little while, but they could not sustain it.

James' jumper was ineffective as was his ability to create space with drives. Mo Williams had 19 points but was 1-of-6 shooting in the second half. Ilgauskas had 22 points but most were jumpers, and he couldn't crack the Lakers' scheme.

The Cavs shot just 28 percent in the second half, which made their trouble with Odom and Gasol impossible to handle.

"You have to try to keep attacking, and I did that at times, but I couldn't make a layup," James said. "When you're not making layups and not making stops it deflates your team."

To reach this Plain Dealer reporter: bwindhorst@plaind.com, 216-999-5166

Game reset

Lakers 101, Cavaliers 91 Game No. 49, at The Q

What happened

The Cavs were handed their first home loss of the season, and they lost the season series to the Lakers with their worst second-half performance of the season. Once again, they struggled with the Lakers' size inside and did not take advantage of Kobe Bryant battling a sickness.

The star

Lamar Odom victimized whichever Cav defended him and put up 28 points with 17 rebounds.

Showtime

With 2:50 left, Bryant scored his only two points of the fourth quarter on a high-arching lob over LeBron James that ended a comeback effort.

Lowlight

The Cavs allowed 62 points in the paint.