Lakers' Bench Unlikely Heroes in Win at Sacramento

This may be one for the SciFi Channel or Amazing True Stories...

After a month of aimless basketball, the Lakers Bench Mob finally caught fire tonight and outscored the Sacramento Bench 42-22 to provide the Lakers with almost their total margin of victory after winning by a score of 122-104.

In the beginning, it looked like the Kings would run away with the game, shooting 71 percent as they opened up a 12-point lead against the Lakers' starters. But as quickly as it began, it quickly ended at the five-minute mark of the first quarter and the Lakers were able to narrow the gap to 37-31 at the end of the quarter.

Then a most unusual event occurred.

The Lakers bench played a flawless second quarter. Not only did they cut into the Kings’ lead, they blew past the Kings and went into halftime with a huge 71-55 lead. Who knew?

The starters returned for the third quarter and played as poorly as the bench had been playing before this game. Maybe it was the idea that Andrew Bynum will be back very soon, perhaps as early as Thursday against Denver that reduced their focus somewhat.

In any case, the Kings were able to reduce the Lakers’ lead to ten points, 86-76, by the end of the third quarter.

Once again, it was the Bench Mob to the rescue as they extended the Lakers lead to 22 points while Kobe Bryant, Derek Fisher, and Lamar Odom got to watch the action from the bench.

It wasn’t that the starters didn’t have their usual offensive punch. All the starters except for Derek Fisher were in double figures. Pau Gasol had a game-high 26 points along with 12 rebounds. Kobe Bryant had 22 with five rebounds, four assists, and two steals. Lamar Odom had another double-double scoring 15 points and grabbing 11 rebounds. Trevor Ariza finished with 14 points.

However, It was the starters’ defense that was letting the Kings score at will, giving up 37 points in the first quarter alone. In a complete turnaround, the bench came in and stopped the Kings cold, holding the Sacramento subs to just 22 points while scoring 42 of their own.

Sasha Vujacic scored 12 points, all in the fourth quarter as the Bench Mob pulled away from the Kings for good. One field goals came on a spectacular dunk against two Kings defenders that made Kobe Bryant quip, "Now I’ve seen everything. I’m ready to retire."

Luke Walton had a season-high 11 points with and an impressive nine assists. Shannon Brown contributed nine points, seven of which came in the Lakers’ second-quarter comeback. Josh Powell added six points and grabbed eight rebounds in just 21 minutes.

After the game, head coach Phil Jackson called starting center Andrew Bynum, recovering from a torn MCL, to let him know that he will be activated for Thursday night’s game against the Denver Nuggets at Staples Center.

After proving that the bench can get it done, can you imagine the commotion that will erupt when public address announcer, Lawrence Tanter, calls out Bynum’s name? It just might cause an 8.3 on the Richter Scale. No doubt Lakers fans across the nation will be thrilled.

I will have my thoughts on Bynum’s return in my next article.