The LakeShow: Los Angeles Answers Our Prayers

On Sunday, the Los Angeles Lakers (26-6) faced one of their toughest challenges of the season to date, in the 23-10 Dallas Mavericks, good for second place in the Western Conference.

Over the past few weeks I, as well as Los Angeles fans and analysts alike, have worried about the recent performance put forth by the Lakers and the lack of aggressiveness in the first half.

The Mavericks posed as the first major example to prove whether or not the Lakers were just in a short slump because of the loss of Ron Artest (12.1 PPG), or if Los Angeles has a lot of problems to evaluate before the playoffs.

My largest concern of late has been the lack of bench contribution by the Lakers supporting cast, and the large amounts of minutes that the starters have been playing in Los Angeles. This may too be a factor of the loss of Artest, who constantly relieves Kobe of defensive pressure, but only time will tell the answer.

Without a bench, the Lakers will not only fall short of their championship goal in 2010, but may risk injury to their glorified starting five.

Dallas was the first test for the Kobe Crew since Bryant saved the Lakers against the dismal Sacramento Kings (14-19). If you want more from that game, read “Lakers-Kings: Kobe Bryant Saves Lackluster Los Angeles.”

After losing their previous meeting with the Mavericks, scoring a season low of 80 points in Los Angeles, the Lakers (104.09 PPG) began Sunday’s game with an aggressive offensive attack; exactly what we’ve been waiting for.

Their performance in the first half would change the mindset of many doubters like me.

The early run was produced by strong performances by Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol, and Kobe Bryant. Bryant was getting everyone involved in the first, the exact role that Lakers fans expect from him. Kobe is a player that makes everyone around him better and instead of shooting himself out of an early slump, Bryant played unselfishly and allowed Los Angeles to get ahead quickly.

The involvement of the bench and the cohesiveness of the triangle offense are what Los Angeles needs to continue in order to be successful in the playoffs, whether or not they have Ron Artest in the lineup.

Though at times the Lakers looked overanxious, and dare I say sloppy, but their assertiveness on the offensive end gave me hope again. Kobe began to catch fire half way through the first, instead of the third, giving Los Angeles a 17 point lead after one quarter.

D.J. Mbenga, who hadn’t seen much action in the past two weeks, came off the bench in the first and was a cornerstone in the Lakers defense. He had three blocks in the three minutes that he was on the floor, along with second unit role players Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic. Farmar and Vujacic had a combined seven points and five rebounds. Farmar finished the half with 12 points.

The involvement of the bench by Los Angeles in the first half speaks volumes to the adjustments that they made from previous games. The Lakers surpassed their bench-scoring total, from the Sacramento game, after only 13 minutes.  

In the first half, the statistics extinguished criticisms of the offense. In only 24 minutes, Los Angeles’ bench scored 24 to supplement Kobe’s 15.  The Lakers bench would finish with 66 points.

The rest of the game was run by a mixture of starters and role players, with Odom (15) and Farmar (24) having strong nights. Los Angeles finished the game with a 35 point lead and notched their 27th victory with a 131-96 victory.

The largest victory was not the fact that Los Angeles trumped the team that currently holds the Western Conference two spot; however, the Lakers solved their issues early in the game, and had a huge output by their bench players. Now the only question is, who's going to be able to stop them?