Does a Los Angeles Lakers Repeat Hinge on the Performance of the Reserves?

Anyone who follows the Los Angeles Lakers will tell you it's a good chance players like Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol will give you pretty consistent performances in the postseason, and there have been signs about other players as well.

Ron Artest has been the most consistent defensive player for much of the season, and even though his offensive game has yet to find a rhythm, it's not necessary for Artest to excel in that aspect of the game.

Those three players especially, will usually give maximum efforts throughout the postseason, but when it comes to the bench and their needed contributions, the future is a lot less settled.

Lamar Odom is a wondrously talented player and the one person who defines the inconsistency of the Lakers' reserves in the regular season and so far this postseason.

Odom is the rare talent capable of efficiently playing multiple positions and the range of his game is only limited by his tendency to disappear from contests at the most inopportune moments.

Odom is not alone in his endeavours because while his fellow bench players may not possess the same abilities as Odom they have definitely learned to mimic his inconsistencies.

Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown are the most physically gifted members of the Lakers' reserves other than Odom and the fact they are both point guards is a critical factor to the Lakers' success.

One of Los Angeles' biggest problems has been an inability to defend opposing point guards, and both Brown and Farmar would appear to represent a significant upgrade over the aging Derek Fisher.

Fisher is still a valuable member of the Lakers' franchise and any hopes of a repeat championship will likely include efforts from him but there is no denying his defense has suffered as age has settled in.

He simply lacks the foot speed to stay in front of younger, quicker guards, and Oklahoma City Thunder point guard Russell Westbrook provides a definitive case study in the matter.

Westbrook is bigger, stronger, and quicker than Fisher and during the first round matchup between the teams Westbrook has made his living from penetrating the lane, and finishing at the rim.

Fisher has had no answer for Westbrook's physical forays to the rim and his back-ups have fared little better, as Westbrook and not Kevin Durant has become the most important member of the Thunder's team.

Artest has done an admirable job of making Durant work hard for each score, and his defense and Bryant's scoring have nullified the impact Durant was expected to have.

Durant is still a pertinent part of the Thunder's scheme, but unless Westbrook plays well, Oklahoma City has little chance at defeating the Lakers regardless of what Durant does.

Westbrook has been more than up to the challenge, and the Lakers' guards have been powerless to stop him, as his play has highlighted a fundamental flaw of the Laker team.

The poor defense from the point guard position is a familiar issue, but it has run parallell to the more troubling concern of the Lakers' reserves failures to contribute anything meaningful to the team.

It has reaches startling heights as the last two games have seen uneven performances from the bench, and in Tuesday's game no other laker besides Gasol and Bryant were able to reach double figures.

So how much does this concern weigh on the Lakers' chances to successfully defend their championship, and will there be a point in time where the play of the bench could mean the difference between a win or loss?

The Lakers' had to deal with the same issues last year but to a lesser extent because the rest of the league had yet to catch up to the overall talent level of the team.

The same can not be said of this year's team, because while the top six players for the Lakers remain among the most talented in the league, other teams have improved their rosters, and the most visible area is depth.

It seems that opponents have realized there is little chance to match the talent of Bryant, Gasol, Odom, Artest, and Andrew Bynum, so they have placed their hopes in tiring the Lakers out.

Contenders like the Cleveland Cavaliers, the orlando Magic, and the Dallas Mavericks have not only improved the talent on their rosters, but they have paid significant attention to their reserves.

Each of those teams hold a distinct advantage over the Lakers' reserves, but even if the Lakers' are able to get minimal contributions from their reserves, they could still win a title.

Los Angeles is that talented of a team that they can likely survive if the reserves could at the very least hold a lead, and provide a few minutes of rest for the starters, but they have been unable to do even that.

Watching the Lakers' reserves has become similar to viewing a re-run of a bad show, made worse by the fact you know how each episode is going to end.

The Lakers have followed the same script for much of the regular season, and the playoffs and it usually includes the starters staking the team a big lead, and the bench players coming in and promptly blowing it.

Los Angeles has the talent to defeat the Thunder without much help from their bench players, but whoever they play in the second round could be a different story.

If the Lakers hope to repeat their championship of 2009, the reserves could make the task a lot less stressful by contributing regularly, even on a minimal basis.