LAKERS NOTEBOOK: NIGHT IN DENVER ONLY GETS WORSE.

Byline: ROSS SILER

Staff Writer

The schedule already wasn't working in the Lakers' favor this week, calling on them to play a late TNT game Thursday night in Denver before flying home to face Portland in the second game of a back-to-back set Friday.

Then they boarded their charter plane after a 27-point loss to the Nuggets only to be startled once they were airborne by the sucking sound of the cabin losing pressure.

What already had been a long night was about to get even longer.

"I guess it's that saying, when people say it really can't get any worse, it can always get worse," Maurice Evans said. "It's still not an excuse for (Friday). Maybe it can be something we can use as extra motivation to turn this thing around."

After only 15 minutes in the air, the Lakers made an emergency landing in Denver and spent much of the night at the general aviation terminal.

A second plane had to be flown in and the Lakers didn't return to Los Angeles until 5:15 a.m.

Luke Walton said he was concerned when the plane wasn't gaining altitude and the flight attendant hurried by without making eye contact.

After they landed, trainer Gary Vitti scrambled to call hotels in case the team needed overnight accommodations.

Lakers coach Phil Jackson said he thought the delay might have been good bonding for a team that had lost seven consecutive games.

All his players could do to kill three hours was chat with each other, watch the one available television and play cards.

"I think sometimes it's a positive thing for a basketball club," Jackson said. "Everybody had to sit around together in one of those terminals."

Jackson canceled the morning shootaround with the players not returning home until close to sunrise.

Injury report: Brian Cook was walking around the locker room, albeit slowly, on his sprained right ankle before Friday's game and said he hoped to return in a week.

Cook was injured when he tried to avoid crashing into Walton, who set up to take a charge during a fast break drill in practice Tuesday.

"I thought it messed it up pretty bad but I was able to walk off on my own strength," Cook said.

Jackson, meanwhile, said the possibility of center Chris Mihm returning to play this season was "very, very, very small."

Mihm was ruled out for the season after undergoing a second ankle surgery in November but was thought to be ahead of schedule in his rehabilitation.