Wait a moment. What now in Lakerland? Weren’t things supposed to cool off once folks in L.A. got accustomed to Ramon Sessions over Derek Fisher at point guard? Weren’t these Lakers supposed to be drama-free once the trading deadline passed? Isn’t this the year in which Andrew Bynum was supposed to grow up?
Lakers fans must be missing the days when potential deals involving Pau Gasol were the chief off-court headlines. Their team is a solid No. 3 seed in the Western Conference, winning three of its last four and eight of its last 11. Still, it seems impossible for the Lakers to simply play well without an asterisk, without a tangential storyline you only hope does not foreshadow some cataclysm.
Next up is the return of Fisher, now a member of the Thunder.
Few would argue the benefits of replacing Fisher (3.8 points on 22.7 percent shooting with Oklahoma City) with Sessions (13.3 points, 52.8 percent shooting since being traded to L.A.). Sessions has been outstanding for this new team’s offense, but one thing for which Fisher could be counted on is a cool head in the Lakers locker room. He’s no longer there, though, and now we’ve already seen some unnecessary in-fighting bubbling up.
The brief benching of Bryant in favor of Metta World Peace in the fourth quarter of the Lakers’ loss to Memphis on Sunday was an eyebrow-raiser. Bryant acknowledged he wasn’t happy about it, but was careful not to make an issue of his stay on the bench, and on Tuesday, Bryant was back on the floor for the final 6:39 of the Lakers’ win over the Warriors—and Bryant scored six critical points in the last 1:04.
While Bryant was on the floor, though, Bynum wasn’t. Brown clearly was annoyed by Bynum’s 3-point brick in the third quarter, his fourth 3-point attempt of the season and eighth of his career—but his second in the previous two games. Brown benched Bynum for the final 9:10 of the Warriors game. He has been on Bynum all season about providing consistent effort, and for a while, he seemed to have made a breakthrough, as Bynum made the All-Star team and had a stretch of double-digit rebounds in 22 of 24 games.
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But after one of the two games in which he did not reach double-figure rebounding, a loss to the lowly Wizards, Bynum confessed to “loafing.” He has looked like a loafer again over his last five games, in which he has been adequate as a scorer (18.8 points) but lacking as a rebounder (7.0 per game, well below his 12.2 rebound average). When Brown benched him against Golden State, Bynum didn’t seem pleased, remaining separate from the team during timeouts. After the game, he told reporters, “I don’t know what was bench-worthy about the shot, to be honest with you. I made one the other day, and I wanted to make another one. That’s it.”
Bryant, for one, blew off Bynum’s impetuousness, saying he did much the same thing when he was a young player. Still, it is frustrating to watch the player on whom the Lakers have bet their future, short- and long-term, show the ability to dominate, only to turn around and then loaf, chuck 3-pointers and cop a bad attitude.
There is more made of Laker strife than the standard conflicts that arise with most teams. That’s something Fisher will know about when he arrives with the conference-leading Thunder, in a game that means a lot to the Lakers in terms of establishing their credentials as West contenders. They’ve only played one game so far this season against the two teams ahead of them in the West (Oklahoma City and San Antonio), and they were drilled by the Thunder, 100-85. Bynum was bad in that loss, shooting 5-for-15, and Bryant was worse, going 7-for-24 and having six of his shots blocked. Including Thursday’s game, the Lakers play five of their final 16 against the Spurs and Thunder—winning at least three of them will help keep the Lakers in the third spot of the West standings and show they belong among the conference elite.
Even by L.A. standards, this has been a tumultuous year. With about a month remaining in the regular season, it would be a good time for Brown to maintain control of his team, a good time for Bryant to be at his best, a good time for Bynum to show some maturity and return to dominant form. The Lakers may not be a championship-caliber bunch, but they can do better than the second-round sweep they suffered in last year’s postseason.
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