Metta World Peace is the core of Lakers’ reserve corps

As Metta World Peace goes, so go the Lakers.

Their second unit, anyway.

He’s been hit or miss this season, metta or messy, scoring 19 points one game but following it up a few days later with no points on 0-for-8 shooting.

Lakers Coach Mike Brown made a move already at small forward, replacing Devin Ebanks with Matt Barnes in the starting lineup. He continued to have faith in World Peace.

Brown likes him with the second unit because he can find his own shot there, no longer competing with Kobe Bryant, Pau Gasol and Andrew Bynum for touches.

As usual, World Peace seems content with everything — the demotion, life and a proposed nickname for the Lakers’ reserves.

It seems as if every season brings a new nickname for them, be it the Killer B’s or the Bench Mob, both put to use in recent seasons by the players themselves.

A prominent Lakers fan site came up with “Peace Corps” for this season’s backups.

“Wow, that’s amazing,” World Peace said. “I love it. That’s nice.”

World Peace averaged a career-low 8.5 points last season but was actually slightly up, to 9.3 points, through the Lakers’ first six games. He had only four points Tuesday against the Houston Rockets but moved the ball well with five assists.

The leader of the reserves Tuesday was Steve Blake, who had 11 points and made two of three three-point attempts in the Lakers’ 108-99 victory over the Rockets.

Man down

McRambis is McInjured.

The Lakers’ hard-charging power forward, Josh McRoberts, did not play against Houston because of a sprained big toe on his left foot.

McRoberts was initially injured last week against Sacramento, comparing it to a turf-toe situation after he stopped abruptly during the game. Adding to the discomfort, Gasol inadvertently stepped on the toe later in the game.

An MRI exam and CT scan Tuesday did not show any fractures, and the team officially ruled him day-to-day.

The toe hurts when McRoberts does fairly important activities — jumping and running, he said.

“I just haven’t really gotten any better so I’m just going to see if a little time off can get it healed up,” McRoberts said.

McRoberts said he would try to play Thursday in Portland. He is averaging 5.7 points and 5.7 rebounds in his first season with the Lakers.

Troy Murphy took his spot in the rotation Tuesday.

More injuries

Reserve power forward Derrick Caracter continued to make progress in his return from knee surgery and said he was a few days away from running.

Caracter had cartilage removed from his left knee after getting injured on a non-contact play the first week of training camp. He is still at least a week from returning.

He averaged two points and one rebound in 41 games as a rookie last season.

Times correspondent Mark Medina contributed to this report.

mike.bresnahan@latimes.com

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