BOSTON — The Los Angeles Lakers count on Lamar Odom to provide a lift off a bench that has been outplayed by the Boston Celtics in the NBA Finals.
They’re still waiting.
With Andrew Bynum’s sore right knee cutting into the center’s playing time, it’s even more important that Odom step up in Game 5 on Sunday night. Lakers coach Phil Jackson suggested an unorthodox way to get him jump-started.
“I was thinking of an electrode, you know,” he said Friday to a round of laughter. “Something that would really be a stimulus.”
Odom wasn’t much help in Boston’s 96-89 victory Thursday night that evened the best-of-seven series at 2-2. He had 10 points and seven rebounds in a series- high 39 minutes, while Bynum was limited to 12 minutes — only two in the second half. Jackson said the Lakers can win Game 5 even if Bynum can’t play.
Off the bench, the Celtics outscored the Lakers 36-18. For the series, Boston’s reserves hold a 102-70 edge in points and a 45-37 lead in rebounds.
“They do a great job of moving the ball, and different guys took shots,” Odom said. “You can only apply so much pressure when different guys take shots.”
While the 7-foot, 285-pound Bynum is a tough matchup for the Celtics’ big men inside, Odom, at 6-10 and 230, brings the ball up court and plays around the perimeter instead of putting his lanky frame near all that pounding near the basket.
That was costly in Game 4 when Boston’s beefy but agile Glen Davis, at 6-9 and 289, scored nine of his 18 points in a fourth quarter that started with the Lakers leading 62-60. Odom began that quarter with just four points and didn’t score again until the Celtics had gone ahead 71-64.
“He still has a guard role out there,” Jackson said. “So his responsibility is to actually bring the ball up and initiate the offense. That gives us kind of an unusual attack and gets Kobe (Bryant) at the wing, and it’s something that obviously Boston is quite prepared to try and stop.
“And the quickness of Davis, who’s a rather unusual player in the NBA with his size, still his quickness is, I think, affecting Lamar.”
In the four games, Odom is averaging 7.5 points and 5.3 rebounds. In Game 1 alone of the Western Conference finals against the Phoenix Suns, he scored 19 points with a career playoff-high 19 rebounds. He finished that series averaging 14 points and 11.8 rebounds.
