I hurry downstairs to my television to find out that we’re down 57-59 at the start of the third quarter. Three-game road trip, and we might be starting it off with a fat, ugly L on our foreheads.
Jennings had torn up the Lakers backcourt with 19 points in the half. This is the guy who ruined my fantasy last year with .16 percent shooting on a week that I needed him bad. Again, our defense just isn’t there, especially now that Ratliff is out with arthroscopic surgery. Bogut was owning the boards with 9 offensive rebounds and 18 total, when Pau and Odom combined for 17 altogether.
Fisher brought the game back with a 26-footer and a driving lay-up smothered by three defenders to tie the game at 66. I was relieved to know that we finally came back, after being outscored in the second quarter 25 to 30. But we were trading baskets now. Something needed to change.
During almost every Lakers game, they run polls through text messages to get the audience’s opinion on who came off as the biggest surprise off the bench. We knew we were signing up for a stable playmaker with Blake who can hit the threes and run the triangle offense well.
Barnes, also, does not surprise us when he relentlessly jumps for missed shots, dives for loose balls, or just plays downright gritty defense. Brown, however, blew me away these past 10 games and made me repent for wanting to scrap his salary for the likes of Raja Bell.
With 1:45 left on the third, in comes Shannon Brown—meek as a sheep, never looking like he belongs there in the midst of all the roaring testosterone. And he bolts all of a sudden. Covered by two defenders, he runs the baseline for a lay-up I never imagined he would make. From the camera angle on the television, it just looks impossible, but he nets two points. The scoreboard slaps me across my incredulity.
“I definitely don&rs...
Article Source: Bleacher Report - Los Angeles Lakers
