Breaks Are All Big for Bennett

He’d like to thank all the big people who made this possible. Shawn Kemp and Vitaly Potapenko of the Cavaliers, serving one-game suspensions along with 12th man Shawnelle Scott for leaving the bench during an altercation two nights earlier. Robert Horry of the Lakers, grounded by a strained Achilles’ tendon. Another teammate, Corie Blount, for putting his back in the way of Shea Seals’ elbow during a pregame one-on-one.

Mario Bennett gladly accepts. He would have been thrilled enough, of course, to make the opening lineup in any way, but the start was only the start, to be followed by 35 minutes, 21 points, 10 rebounds and a 105-93 Laker victory Friday night before 20,562 at Gund Arena.

That he played at all took the strangest of circumstances. Starting power forward Horry had to sit out because of the injury suffered in the fourth quarter Thursday at New Jersey, a decision that was not made until about 15 minutes before tipoff. Blount, a top reserve, had to lose the shot at promotion because of the knot in his lower back, also incurred shortly before the game.

And that was just among the Lakers. The Cavaliers did their part too. If Kemp had played, for example, Bennett would not have started because Coach Del Harris would have gone with Elden Campbell for a more physical matchup instead of Bennett for speed. And not starting probably would have meant not playing as much.

Not that Bennett eased into the role, displaying his typically emotional side about 10 minutes before the Lakers took the court, calling out in the locker room “Let’s get it on!” and then piling up six points, five rebounds and two steals in the first quarter. That came after not having played in the previous two games, after having averaged 5.3 minutes in the previous four appearances, after not having started since 1995-96 as a member of the Phoenix Suns, when he made the opening lineup 14 times.

What transpired the rest of the way--career highs in points and minutes, making 10 of 12 shots to set another best for field goals made, complementing the 26 points and 11 rebounds by Shaquille O’Neal to help carry the depleted Laker frontcourt past the depleted Cavalier frontcourt--came out of nowhere. But then again, so did the opportunity in the first place.

“It’s big,” Bennett said after the Lakers improved to 3-0 on their final Eastern swing, with the chance to sweep coming Sunday at Detroit. “I can’t really explain how overjoyed I am to go out there and feel like one of the guys and just play basketball. Overjoyed.”

And only slightly surprised that he could produce, no, not when given the minutes. No, he insisted, not even to produce like that.

But to go through a hard workout about 30 minutes before tipoff, figuring the two-on-twos would be his only playing time for the night, as always, and then be so active on such late notice? OK, that was unexpected.

“I was telling myself I wish I would have known ahead of time,” Bennett said.

Harris could have gone in another direction. He considered moving 6-foot-7 Rick Fox to power forward, since the Cavaliers were forced to use 6-7 Cedric Henderson there, and then put Kobe Bryant in the starting lineup at small forward. But that would have left Harris without any small forwards to bring off the bench.

He considered Campbell, but decided against that because Kemp was out.

“So the better decision was to start Mario and see how it went,” Harris said. “Mario is as athletic as anybody on our team, so he could match up well with Cleveland’s athletic lineups.”

This is what matching up well became by the time the Lakers had won their fourth in a row and for the ninth time in 10 games:

Bennett, in Harris’ words, the player “without whom we would not have been able to win today.”

It wasn’t all Bennett’s doing, of course. Kemp and Potapenko, Horry and Blount, they deserve some of the credit too.