Very seldom does Phil Jackson say things for the sake of saying them. So when Jackson dubs his bench as The Renegades, you better believe it wasn’t just for lack of a better word.
As good as the bench has been for the Lakers in the first two regular season games, they got a healthy sampling of humble pie during the second quarter of the Lakers Sunday night 107-83 victory over the Warriors.
Going into the third game of the season, 36 of the 57 points the Lakers’ bench had scored came from 3-pointers. Although they shot an excellent 57 percent from the outside, Jackson wanted to re-iterate what the team’s true strength was.
“We’re more of an inside team,” Jackson said. “Kobe [Bryant is] going to post people up, Lamar [Odom is] going to post people up and so is Pau [Gasol] and Andrew [Bynum] when he gets back.”
Just hours after Jackson told the media he was looking for his team to make it a priority to go inside for offense, as opposed to taking perimeter shots, it’s exactly what the new-and-improved bench did, nearly wasting away a Lakers 20-point lead going into the second quarter.
Here’s how the offense went during the opening minutes of the second quarter.
Steve Blake missed a 21-foot jumper. Shannon Brown missed a 21-foot jumper. Devin Ebanks missed a 15-foot jumper. Theo Ratliff missed a 12-foot jumper. Matt Barnes missed a 26-foot jumper.
Five reserves on the floor, eight possessions in two minutes and the bench mustered up a total of zero points.
The Renegades deserted Jackson’s advice, choosing to deviate from the Lakers strength of going inside-out, staying true to the definition of their given name.
Three minutes later, Jackson was left with no choice but to revert back to his starters, leaving Barnes in to spark two back-to-back, momentum-changing plays by going—you guessed it—inside.
Looks like there’s a reason why Jackson doesn’t have enough fingers to display all 12 of his championship rings on. Clearly, he knows what he’s talking about.
Next: Second unit still trying to build chemistry
In their defense, the bench didn’t really boast an inside presence other than Ratliff, who isn’t exactly being primed to run the offense through. Then there’s the fact that they haven’t played together without a single starter, so perhaps not having being able to establish chemistry was a factor in the bench hitting a rough-patch. Still taking care of the basketball, spreading the floor and getting the ball into the lane, drawing the defense in and then passing to the wide-open shooters on the outside, are fundamentals the bench doesn’t want to ignore.
“Our bench is definitely a talented bench, but we’ve got to build our chemistry,” said Barnes after Saturday’s reserves-only practice. “I think we’re headed in the right direction. When you go to the bench, you really don’t want to have any drop-offs.”
A premeditated sentiment by Barnes, perhaps anticipating Jackson having the opportunity to experiment with the bench given the Lakers’ starters ability to bust-open leads early in games, but not quite expecting the outcome they had Sunday night.
The new-look bench will get a much needed inside-presence in Lamar Odom, who’s been stellar so far early in the regular season by staying away from the perimeter and posting-up more.
All is well that ends well or in the Lakers case, all is well that ends in Ron Artest partaking in some wave action at the Staples Center. Except that, while holding the offensively-charged, run-and-gun Golden State Warriors to a mere 83 points does wonders to improve the Lakers’ points-per-game average, it does little to boost Jackson’s confidence in allowing the second unit to play without integrating a starter or two.
Okay, so now the knit-picking begins.
Yes, it’s still a learning process and so long as the starters are able to build leads, it affords Jackson the luxury of inserting his bench—Ebanks and Sasha Vujacic included—in order to mesh as a unit. That is of course they don’t make it all too interesting given the starters are going to need the so-called Renegades to hold onto and even extend leads as the season progresses.
“There’s a lot of potential for this bench to be very good,” Lakers reserve Luke Walton said. “We have a lot of energy, a lot of talent, a lot of playmakers, so if it all works out it will be a very good second unit.”