The Lakers “Bench Mob” are important to the success of the team and with the injuries to Jordan Farmar, Luke Walton, Lamar Odom and most recently Sasha Vujacic we’re getting to see just how important they are.  Long story short they provide minutes.  Minutes for the starters to get the much needed rest on the bench to be fresh down the stretch.  Everyone knows the Lakers have a track record for letting games slip away in the fourth quarter, and with the lack of help from the injured bench it puts the pressure on the starters to provide additional minutes.

Derek Fisher has done an amazing job handling the point.  Over the past eleven games since Farmar was injured, Fisher has averaged just under 38 minutes per game.  In most of those games he played over 40 minutes.  For a guy that is pushing 35 years old, that is unreal.  When I play a full court pickup game at my local park to eleven points, I’m absolute toast by the end of it.  Playing the point has to be one of the hardest positions in terms of stamina, and Fish makes it look easy.

The Lakers play the Rockets tonight.

Injury update: Odom is listed “Day to Day”, Vujacic “Doubtful” and Walton and Farmar are out.  Needless to say those injuries are a big hit to the team, let’s hope the Lakers starters can leg out the extra minutes and get the job done.