SAN ANTONIO -- After Game 3 of the Western Conference finals, you don't need me here in San Antonio to write this column. Anybody could write this one. A dead man could write it.

Lamar Odom has a rough Game 3 to put it kindly: 2-of-11 for 7 points. (Getty Images)

For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction ...

You see the old coot's point? For every Manu Ginobili, he's saying, there's a Lamar Odom.

Odom was terrible Sunday night, and not just terrible in the dictionary sense of the word. He was terrible in the Biblical sense. Forget Isaac Newton. Maybe Job should write this column. Maybe Moses should do it, now that he's finished sending that plague of locusts into Odom's brain.

Odom was terrible, but if you'll notice, I'm trying to share ownership of that idea. I'm letting Isaac Newton say it. I'm sourcing Job and Moses. Hell, I'd let Beelzebub or even Bob Knight write this thing if they'd do it, because ripping Lamar Odom is not fun. Odom might be the nicest guy in the Lakers locker room, which is saying something considering Derek Fisher and Ira Newble are also in there.

Here's a snapshot of Odom. It's small, but small matters. Before Game 2 in Los Angeles, a Japanese media crew was hovering next to his locker. Odom's back was turned, so he didn't see them. When he turned around, he smacked into the camera and winced in pain. And then he said a two-word phrase you don't expect to hear from an NBA stud:

My bad.

Nice guy, Lamar Odom. But holy cow was he bad in Game 3. I don't want to say he lost that game by himself, because he had very little to do with Ginobili scoring 30 points (try a different defender, Phil Jackson) or with Tim Duncan rolling up 22 points and 21 rebounds (stop being a weenie, Pau Gasol).

Culpability for this game can be shared, but if this were hockey and we were ranking the game's three stars, we'd have started with Ginobili and then gone right to Odom, who was clearly the second most important player on the court. Odom took 11 shots from the floor and missed nine. He shot eight free throws and missed five. He had seven points. He had five turnovers.

Odom did lead the Lakers in rebounds (11) and assists (six), so he was active. Terrific. So are toddlers. So are older kids with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. So are NBA players seemingly bent on screwing up a perfectly winnable game.

Frankly, I've never seen anything like the second quarter Lamar Odom contributed Sunday night. It was like watching the final scene from Tin Cup, where Kevin Costner hits ball after ball into the water, stubbornly and stupidly -- only Costner eventually holed out from the fairway. Odom holed up at the end of the bench, sitting by himself after Jackson called timeout during that awful second quarter and then barked at Odom as he walked off the court. While the rest of the Lakers sat in earshot of the coaching staff, Odom sat at the end of the bench to ruminate on his flood of fail:

In that second quarter, Odom was 0-for-5 from the floor, including missed shots that -- according to the official play-by-play -- came from two feet and zero feet. He was 1-for-4 from the foul line. He had four turnovers. In other words, the ball was in his hands for almost the entire period, and nothing good ever came of it. The Lakers began the quarter with a 24-21 lead. By the time Jackson called timeout, the Spurs led 46-36.

Hilariously, after that timeout, Odom needed six seconds to do it again. He got the ball in his hands and wheeled drunkenly into the lane, where he was fouled. In my notebook, this is what I wrote down:

Lamar Odom -- hahahaha!

At least Odom made one of the two free throws. Why he was still in the game, I have no idea. Just as surely as Ginobili, with 14 points in the quarter, was putting the Spurs onto his back, Odom was putting the Lakers under the bus. NBA games last 48 minutes, but this one was decided in that second quarter.

Ginobili won it.

But Odom lost it.

And the thing is, Odom knew it. And admitted it. After the game he looked into a TV camera and said the loss was his fault. Then he walked into the locker room and said the same thing, not even waiting for the first question from the pack of jackals before announcing: "I put this one on myself. I take the blame, totally, for this game."

This time nobody with a TV camera banged into him. But one TV reporter did throw out the following non-question:

"You were 2-for-11."

Odom looked into the reporter's eyes and said something shocking.

"I also had five turnovers."

Told you. Great guy.

But what a lousy game he played Sunday.