With 2:39 remaining in the third quarter, Shannon Brown and Sasha Vujacic (the latter with zero minutes to his name) hit the hardwood to join fellow sub Lamar Odom, who'd removed his warmups a few possessions earlier. This meant a trio of reserves playing with Pau Gasol and Ron Artest, which shouldn't necessarily be cause for alarm. However, you could forgive Lakers fans if this particular quintet gave them the willies, considering the horror they'd witnessed before intermission.

The second quarter had kicked off with the Lakers up 30-17, tone and dominance clearly established. The Lakers racked a whopping 22 of their 28 points in the paint, snagged seven offensive boards and forced Sacto rookie phenom Tyreke Evans into two-for-seven shooting. Exactly what one hoped to see against a lowly Kings team, and on the heels of a largely disappointing win in the Bay Area.

From there, however, things grew instantly dicey, as the subs let the game get out of hand in a flash. Between LO, Brown, Jordan Farmar, and Adam Morrison (getting rare first half run), there were six missed baskets on as many hoists, adding to the goose egg posted by Farmar and Odom during the first frame. There were bad decisions, particularly from the young guards on separate tunnel-visioned, out of control drives to the rack. Making things worse, the Kings found a way to capitalize on misfortune, scoring on four consecutive trips directly following a dry Laker possession.

Within a span of two minutes and fifteen seconds, the Kings reeled off 13 points to the Lakers' three, knotting things up at 33 apiece and ending halftime down just a point to their guests. Once the new quarter commenced, the starters pushed the lead back to seven when the reserves were offered a shot at redemption.

Thankfully, they made good on the chance.


Vujacic, Shannon and LO scored the last six points of the third quarter, Odom's bucket a crafty layup with his left hand after driving right to blow past Carl Landry and absorbing contact at the rim. Vujacic's fourth quarter paid immediate dividends when his hustle alongside Andres Nocioni on a drive forced the Argentinian to kick out. The ensuing triple attempt by Omri Casspi clanged, and upon pushing the rebound, Kobe Bryant- back in the game for Artest and making a difference for the subs- found Sasha in rhythm to set up a long deuce. Vujacic also interfered with Jason Thompson's retrieval of Nocioni brick, allowing Gasol to snatch the loose ball and feed a streaking Brown for a sensational one-handed dunk.

By the time the starters -give or take an Odom- were back in the mix, the Lakers were up eight and content to trade scores before the eventual victory.

The Lakers' bench didn't just protect a lead, which is obviously the first and foremost goal. By avoiding a repeat of a disastrous second frame and either a disappointingly close win or (worse) an upset loss, they prevented several strong elements from getting lost in the shuffle.

The Lakers turned the ball over just nine times. The battle of the boards was theirs at a 50-43 clip. Sacto shot 43 percent from the field. A considerable size advantage was utilized, as Andrew Bynum and Gasol went to work to the combined tune of 49 points on 14 shots apiece, the latter a tally I would have preferred to see bumped. Along those lines, while I wasn't wild about Kobe taking 26 shots (16 missed) against this particular squad, nor a very uncharacteristic six botched free throws, he nonetheless managed 30 points to complement nine rebounds and seven assists.

It would have been a shame seeing those positives flushed down the toilet due to erratic bench play. A regrouped and more controlled bench held off that fate.

Reserves are by nature less reliable than their starting counterparts, and in the Lakers' case, not quite as rock solid as often reputed. As the Lakers' second unit demonstrated, it's hard to expect consistent results game after game, possession after possession.

But as they also demonstrated, bouncing back when the going starts out rough isn't out of the question.