November 25, 2009

Lamar Dishes, Lakers Keep Winning

To gaze at the Los Angeles Lakers roster and guess who was leading the team in assists, one's first instinct wouldn't be to go with Lamar Odom.

On a team with three capable point guards and a pair of shooting guards, it's hard to believe the team's best passer is a 6' 10” power forward. But the deftest hands on the team belong to LO.

In a 100-90 win over the New York Knicks last night, Lamar Odom had a team high five assists, the sixth time he's led the Lakers in assists in just 14 games this season. He has 67 assists this season.

Lamar was an equal opportunity assister last night, finding Kobe Bryant and Andrew Bynum on back-to-back plays in the first quarter to put the Lakers up six.

Later in the game he dished out balls to Ron Artest and Jordan Farmar. His last assist of the night, a toss to Andrew Bynum for a hook shot, put the Lakers up 23. On the season, LO's averaging 4.8 assists per game. Ron Artest is second on the team, 0.6 assists behind.

But it wasn't all dimes though for No. 7 last night.

He also snatched 12 rebounds, second behind Pau Gasol's 16, and scored five points.

SOARING SLAM
Two of No. 7's five points came on a gigantic one-handed dunk over the Knicks Al Harrington.

After Andrew Bynum clunked a short, turnaround jumper, LO grabbed the rebounded and slammed it home. You can watch it here.

COACH'S CRITIQUE
Despite LO leading the team in treys, Lakers coach Phil Jackson thought Lamar's performance last night was only average, as he told NBA.com:

"He'll find his way. He had twelve rebounds tonight. That part of his game was good. He had five assists, which is okay."

NEXT UP
The Lakers get the Thanksgiving weekend off, not returning to action until Sunday night, when they take on the winless New Jersey Nets. The Lakers won both their games against the Nets last season. LO averaged 12.5 points and eight rebounds in the series.

RELATED ARTICLES
Lakers cruise gets a little choppy (L.A. Times, Nov. 24, 2009)
http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-lakers-knicks25-2009nov25,0,6322571....
Kobe scores 34 in Lakers 100-90 win over Knicks (NBA.com, Nov. 25, 2009)
http://www.nba.com/lakers/news/091124_gameday_knicks.html?rss=true