Laker reserves are making the difference

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Here’s something you hear a lot around the people who cover the Lakers -- and, for that matter, the Lakers themselves:

How good is this team?

A cursory look at the standings -- 14-1, which is a 76-win pace -- suggests it’s very good, indeed.

The Lakers are unbeaten on the road, with one-sided victories against supposed challengers in Phoenix (winning by 13 after leading by 18 during the fourth quarter) and New Orleans (winning by seven after leading by 21 at the half.)

On the other hand, the Lakers don’t always, or often, come out playing hard. They win second halves by 8.5 points a game, but first halves by only 4.9. They’re better in the second quarter (plus 2.7), which the second unit starts, than the first quarter (plus 2.2) in which the starters start.

The Laker bench ranks second in the NBA with 37 points a game, although it’s a misleading statistic.

The No. 1 team is the lowly Minnesota Timberwolves, whose reserves average 39 points -- which has more to do with Coach Randy Wittman’s open audition for a center and power forward he can start alongside Al Jefferson and Mike Miller. None of Wittman’s reserves approaches the stature of a Lamar Odom.

Phil Jackson has won nine titles, but this is his deepest bench, with Odom, Trevor Ariza, Jordan Farmar and Sasha Vujacic, all of whom would start on some other team.

Nevertheless, Jackson is still sentimental about his reserves in Chicago, who were less talented but more lucid.

“Our older players -- Chris Mihm is going to be 30 years of age,” said Jackson. “He’s one of our older players. The mature guys we have on this team are Kobe [Bryant] and Fish [Derek Fisher] and that’s about it. This is a very young team, still.”

But aren’t the Laker reserves better?

“They’re more athletic,” said Jackson.

How about more talented?

“Yes, though we had more talented big guys in that [Bulls] group.”

So the challenge is to get these guys to act as veteran as those guys were?

“Yes, get them more experience.”

Since all coaches would like to lighten the load on their starters, they key statistic might be how many minutes they trust their reserves to play.

Take the Celtics, who are No. 14 in in bench scoring.

The Laker starters average 29.2 minutes a game. The Celtic starters average 32.1.

-- Mark Heisler