Lethargic play not enough to derail surging Lakers

December 19, 2010, 4:07 pm

By Billy Witz
FOXSports.com
WITZ ARCHIVE

TORONTO — There are six days until Miami meets the Lakers in Los Angeles, which means that for nearly a week, the Heat will have to be vigilant about avoiding stray elbows, staying away from steak knives and keeping an eye out for banana peels.

Quite often this season, having the Lakers approach on the schedule has been hazardous to your health.

As if the Lakers’ schedule has not been soft enough – they have played only four games against teams with a winning record – many of their opponents have had to play with a leading hand tied behind their back.

Golden State was without David Lee, Memphis did not have Zach Randolph, Washington missed Andray Blatche (twice) and John Wall (once), Chicago was lacking Carlos Boozer, Houston did not suit up Aaron Brooks or Yao Ming, the Clippers were minus Chris Kaman, and Detroit’s Richard Hamilton was ejected five minutes into the game.

On Sunday, the Raptors joined the pity party, trying to make do without leading scorer Andrea Bargnani and starting guard Sonny Weems.

They couldn’t.

The Lakers’ 120-110 victory was their fifth consecutive win, and it wrapped up a road trip in which many of the highlights came off the court: a visit with President Obama, Kobe Bryant’s high school naming the gym in his honor and – believe it or not – an art exhibit in Toronto featuring Ron Artest.

As for the performance of the Lakers’ starters on Sunday?

It wasn’t more pleasing than the baked potato with bacon that backed up on Lamar Odom, leaving him so lethargic that Lakers coach Phil Jackson had to send Shannon Brown for him with 10.1 seconds to play.

“Lamar was tired,” Jackson said.

After his 28-point performance in Philadelphia, which sparked talk of him becoming an All-Star for the first time, Odom turned the ball over five times and was habitually beat on defense. When Julian Wright beat him from one end of the court to the other, a race that Odom lost by 30 feet, Jackson looked at him and put his palm up, as if to ask what happened?

“It was definitely something internal, when you feel like it’s in here,” Odom said, pointing to his midsection. “And it can’t go nowhere.”

Odom was not the only one whose energy level was held up at customs. Pau Gasol spent as much time complaining about calls as he did trying to box out 6-foot-9 Joey Dorsey, who on one possession grabbed two offensive rebounds.
 
And Jackson was so disappointed with the starters that he yanked Odom, Artest and Bryant late in the third quarter, after the 16-point lead they had built had been whittled to five. Shortly after, Derek Fisher and Gasol followed to the bench.

“My term was don’t get bored with the game and exploit things that aren’t there,” Jackson said. “They took early shots against the zone and played against the principles of what we wanted to do.”
 
As lackluster as the starters were for much of the game, the Lakers reserves were energetic and engaged. Brown, Steve Blake and Matt Barnes carried the day for a unit that scored 57 points, just six less than the starters.

It was the second unit that was largely responsible for turning an eight-point first-quarter deficit into a 42-39 lead.

“Phil always says it’s the starters’ job to get a lead, the bench’s job to build the lead and then the starters finish them off. I was just happy that I got to be a part of it,” said Luke Walton with a smile after scoring a season-high nine points (with four turnovers) in a season-high 14 minutes.

“Given the opportunity, you have to make sure you’re efficient with those chances because you’re not going to have the same chances the starters have.”

Andrew Bynum also had made his largest contribution, scoring 16 points in 17 minutes, in his fourth game back. But he said he felt a twinge in his surgically repaired knee when he had to take two quick leaps around the basket in the first half.   Bynum also grabbed five offensive rebounds (seven total) against the Raptors, who missed the 7-foot Bargnani at both ends of the court.

Yet Jackson did not consider Bynum’s performance a big jump. He is still lacking explosiveness, an assessment with which Bynum agreed.

“I’ve got to do a lot more training just to get some of my explosion back,” Bynum said. “Normally, I catch lobs and my game is really off the floor. Right now, I feel like I’m kind of glued to the floor.”

On Sunday he was not the only one.

Updated December 19, 2010

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