Lake Show Rewind: Laker Bench Untangle Charlotte’s Web – Lakers 99, Bobcats 97

If the Lakers never see the Bobcats again, it will be too soon.  Even though the Lakers got the gift of facing the up-and-coming Bobcats without the services of their best player, Gerald Wallace, the Lakers still needed every second of the clock to free themselves from Charlotte’s web of domination over LA the last few years.  Of course, it would have helped had the Lakers known they basically were going to be playing without their best player too.

That’s some pig… err, I mean Pau.  Get it?  A “Charlotte’s Web reference.  Somewhere a third-grader thinks that was actually funny.

Fresh off being taken to task in the media for shooting too much, Kobe Bryant was almost a total non-factor in this game.  He came out in the first quarter almost making a point of not shooting and deferring to his teammates instead in order to appease them.  By the time he realized his cohorts couldn’t crack the Bobcat defense and that he needed to start taking control, Lamar Odom had to go and accidentally stomp on the Mamba’s bad ankle.  Uh oh.  Suddenly his plan of taking a back seat on offense until the second half was looking like a very bad idea.

With Kobe hobbled, he had no choice but hand the keys to the offense over the rest of the team.  Fortunately, the Bench Mob was up to the task for a change.  In particular, Lamar Odom and Jordan Farmar came up huge on both ends of the floor for the Lakers down the stretch.  It was the kind of thing that would make even the biggest of ball hogs want to spread the ball around more.  At long last the Lakers defeated the Bobcats in Los Angeles for the first time since the 2005-2006 season (seriously) and it was all thanks to candy-loving big man and a big-eared point guard and NOT a league MVP.

• Four people not named Kobe took 10 or more shots tonight.  Is that good enough for you now, Pau?
• Congrats to Phil Jackson for becoming the winningest coach in Laker history.  Keep it up and you might just make something of yourself in this business someday.
• Shannon Brown’s leaping ability is simply bonkers.  He had a vicious jam in the first half that started off looking like he was going to shoot a finger roll from a foot in front of the basket, but he just kept rising and rising before he tomahawked the ball through the hoop in a way that only a guy who was digging a little bit deeper to show up the team that traded him could.

Lake Show Outtakes:

• Is it just me or does Ron Artest miss A LOT of point blank shots?  For whatever reason, Ron-Ron seems to miss at least one or two gimmes per game either because he gets himself into an awkward position or just plain doesn’t jump.  What is his shooting percentage on layups?  I need to know this.  Quick!  Someone find me a nerd!
• Andrew Bynum had a nice night and all, but how the frak does he let Nazr Mohammed go off for 23 points and 17 rebounds?  The Lakers could have cracked the game wide open in the fourth but Mohammed just took over on the glass (including three offensive rebounds in the fourth quarter alone) to keep Charlotte in the game.  That is just plain unacceptable.
• Boo on you Staples Center crowd.  I know this was a very sloppy and disjointed game all the way through, but it was dead silent in the arena almost the entire first half.  Did the Clipper crowd show up for this game by accident or something?

Tags: Andrew Bynum, bench mob, Charlotte Bobcats, Game Rewind, Gerald Wallace, injuries, Jordan Farmar, Kobe Bryant, Lamar Odom, Nazr Mohammed, Pau Gasol, Phil Jackson, Ron Artest, Shannon Brown