Re: For Faker Trolls only - Fakers loose at Utah
posted at 11/27/2010 2:46 PM EST
In Response to
Re: For Faker Trolls only - Fakers loose at Utah:
The Lakers have no bench. Gasol played 44 minutes tonight.
Posted by Kirk6
The Lakers have an awesome bench. On a per game basis so far this year...Blake(19.1 min. 5.5pts 3asts.), Brown(19.1mins, 11.4pts), Barnes(21min, 9.6pts, 5.6reb), and Odom(15pts., 10reb) once Bynum comes back in two weeks. Those minutes you are holding out as some kind of detriment will be nothing but a distant memory. Bynum brings 15 and 10 in 30 minutes of work in a night in and night out basis. Yes, the Lakers are a 13-3 team, with a big ole 7 footer on the way, so yuck it up and harp on those minutes while you can.
Speaking of minutes, the Lakers have had to push their big men somewhat harder than they would like in Bynum's absence, this is true. The truth is, this is not nearly as bad as you scheming Bostonians would have hoped. Odom is logging 34.6 minutes a contest, about 3 more minutes on average than he did last year coming off the bench. Gasol is logging 38.7 per contest, about 1.7 minutes more than the 37 he logged on average all last year. Artest is logging 27.2 minutes per contest, or almost 5 minutes a game less than last year.
Considering this only has to go on a few more weeks, much to the folks in Boston's chagrin, the Lakers will make it past this with ease. Lets not forget, Kobe is quietly averaging 32.9 minutes a game, 4 minutes less than last year, and his lowest average since his second year in the NBA, directly due to the much improved bench play. A fresher Kobe, and Artest is a more dangerous Kobe and Artest come playoff time, and it looks like this will indeed be the case. And when Bynum returns, Gasol will in all likelihood be logging less minutes than last year, as will Odom. When the meat and potatoes part of the schedule comes, followed by the playoffs, the Lakers have a roster that should be much fresher all around, compared to the one that went championship all over yo azzes last year.
In the meantime, the Celtics are working their 35 year old shooting guard 38 minutes a game, or 3 minutes more on average than last year. Pierce's minutes are up 2.3 minutes a game on average. Garnett is playing 3 minutes more per game than last year. The load on the Celtics aging front line players has increased more from last year to this year than that of the Lakers, so those that live in glass houses.....often find out reality can be a unseasonably cold winter frost that spoils your whole crop..
