Lakers' reserves have a bad trip
LAKERS
Bench lets big leads get away in all three games and Phil Jackson wants to do something about it.
And it came to pass, just the way Lakers Coach Phil Jackson figured it would.
He lamented at the beginning of the week about the difficulties his bench would face on the upcoming three-game trip. He pointed out how his bench -- like most in the NBA -- plays its best basketball at home and not on the road.
Jackson wasn't really dismayed by the way his reserves had such roller-coaster efforts at Indianapolis, Philadelphia and Washington, but he still wasn't pleased.
After the Lakers held off the Washington Wizards on Friday night, the third consecutive road game in which his reserves blew big leads, in which they became selfish, Jackson threatened to cut their minutes.
"If the second unit doesn't go out and perform, the first unit is going to play heavy minutes and we'll put these games away," Jackson said.
The way the Bench Mob of Lamar Odom, Jordan Farmar, Trevor Ariza and Sasha Vujacic performed the last three games wasn't lost on the starters.
Kobe Bryant extolled how those reserves, for the most part, have executed as a unit, have not become complacent -- until this past trip.
"Our bench has been doing a great job with that all year," Bryant said. "This road trip we've slipped a little bit. We've got to get back to doing what we do best, which is have those leads and start squeezing things."
At home, the bench has extended leads, which in turn has allowed the starters to sit out fourth quarters.
That wasn't the case on this trip.
The bench did build a 16-point lead very early in the fourth against the Indiana Pacers on Tuesday night.
But after that unit turned the ball over four times in the first 2:44 of the fourth and saw the lead drop eight points, Jackson pulled Odom, Farmar, Ariza and Vujacic and replaced them with the starters.
It was too late, momentum having entered the picture, taking the Lakers under in an ugly loss to the Pacers at the buzzer.
The bench had been asked to protect an 18-point lead in the fourth quarter against the 76ers on Wednesday night, but that slipped to 13 points on their watch. Jackson sent Bryant back in to restore order in the victory.
The starters build a 20-point, third-quarter lead against the Wizards on Friday night and turned matters over to the bench again.
When that group allowed the lead to slip to nine points with 5:41 left, Jackson summoned Bryant again to bail them out.
