Brown and Blake: the former was a clown and the latter was a fake (Casey at the bat). Barnes cant hit the side of a barn, and Odom does only "O!!!!!" and "DUMB!!!".

Anyway, our bench has literally killed us this year. Even more than the great Gashole, who apparently cant even score 15 a game now, the bench is to blame for this years playoff collapse, and only they can right it.

The bench went 6-23 tonight, 0-9 from 3, and 0-3 from the FT line. They contributed just 12 rebounds (9 from Odom), and 6 assists, while giving the ball away 6 times. They also had 6 fouls.

The Dallas bench went 11-35, 1-8 from 3, and 7-8 from the FT line. They contributed 12 rebounds and 10 assists, with just 4 turnovers, and only fouled 4 times.

 In other words, the Dallas bench played alright, while ours layed a total stink bomb.

Yet the sad thing is that this is what we have come to expect from our bench. Odom plays on and off, but even on a fairly bad night like tonight, he was still showing effort, and contributed most of the stats from the bench. Brown's numbers look good, but they dont tell his horrid defense on Barea when he absolutely tore the Lakers to pieces, not does it count the fact that all of his made shots were stupid ones that went in. Most of the time, on those shots, his numbers would be 0-4 or 1-4. Barnes, who played with so much energy for much of the regular season, continues to absolutely lay an egg in the postseason, mainly by not being aggressive enough. He should never take 3s, but does so, and he needs to draw fouls, and get offensive rebounds. Tonight, he did neither of those things.

Finally, there is Steve Blake. I remember most people were excited about getting him: I sure was. Finally, a good backup PG for Fish! WRONG! Blake was terrible in the regular season, mainly by being far too cautious in attempting shots, but also by not being a particularly good shooter. He has not shot at all well in the playoffs, and tonight was his worst effort, missing 5 3s, and having 2 TOs, while being at the fundamental cause for several more. He doesnt run the offense, is not a good defender, cant make or take shots, and is basicallly just invisible out there. The Lakers have been searching for a Fisher replacement for 3 years or more, and still havent found one. He has probably been the biggest disappointment of the year for me, topping out Shannon Brown's basketball IQ of 80 and Gasol's testosterone levels of 0 by a narrow margin.