Lakers Have a Bench Problem
The Lakers better hope the Charlotte Bobcats don’t sneak into the 8th spot of the playoffs and somehow make it to the NBA Finals (current Lakerhead projections of this happening are hovering somewhere around 0.17%). Because there is no way this Laker team can regularly beat the Bobcats.
Raymond Felton, Digs Into an Invisible Hot Dog in Celebration of Dominating the Lakers
The Bobcats once again beat the Lakers, 94-84, and have beat Kobe’s team 6 of the last 7 times in 4 years. Yes, they are athletic and match up well with the Lakers.
But the alarming thing about this two game road slump (besides Kobe’s low shooting percentage, which I continue to convince myself will improve come playoff time) is the weak Laker bench.
The same team that started with the best bench in the NBA just poo-pooed to 11 points, had 4 turnovers, and shot 5-22 from the field (22%). What changed from early in the year?
Here are a few things:
Farmar, Walton, and DJ Mbenga on the Floor at the Same Time? Congratulations, You Have a Weak Bench.
A) Lamar Odom and Trevor Ariza now start- You just got rid of your two best players off the bench. While Odom starting has more to do with Bynum’s injury, Ariza starts for his defense and athleticism. I feel he plays better with a streaking Jordan Farmar, and Luke Walton can get the starters going, so Phil Jackson might want to switch these two around again.
B) Jordan Farmar Is Lost - He’ll play good defense, make his threes, and have sweet assists in one game, and miss his only shot and have 2 turnovers the next. With Odom and Ariza usually resting when Farmar goes in, he doesn’t have the same punch passing the ball to Josh Powell and Luke Walton. Jackson should give him the longer leash, though, as it’s clear sometimes Farmar plays not to make mistakes instead of playing to his full potential.
Begging Won't Help, Sasha. I'll Give You $5 Million Dollars a Year to Put the Ball in the Hole.
C) Sasha Vujacic Forgets How to Shoot the Ball- Let’s look at Sasha’s field goal success this road trip: 2-3 against the Bulls (his only good game), 1-6 against the Thunder, 1-4 against the Pistons, 1-5 against the Nets, 0-4 against the Hawks, and 1-5 against the Bobcats. What kind of machine is this, an automatic brick layer? Everyone knows Sasha could really shoot the ball and has a good stroke (he doesn’t miss in practice, blah, blah, blah) but the Lakers just paid him $5 million a year for the next 3 years to be a shooter. Get some antivirus and make some shots, hair boy.
The Lakers play the Bucks tomorrow. Bynum will not be back for Odom to come off the bench. But Sasha, Walton, and Farmar can all still contribute from the bench. That or Phil Jackson might contemplate a 6-man rotation with plenty of timeouts for the playoffs once Bynum comes back (Kobe and Fisher for 48 minutes! Grind ‘em to the bone! Wait, nevermind).
