Published: May 28, 2009
From the point of view of building a strong narrative, few storyline in sports are as intriguing as when a consistent underachiever finally delivers.
We are drawn to trying to solve the enigma of why said player cannot ‘put it all together’ more often. We are frustrated to no end by their inconsistency, yet at the same time compelled by their promise.
We remain hopeful that their promise has finally been actualized, that it has struck out. The potential that their would-be greatness has been made real is strikes us as awesome.
More often than not though, the bottom will again fall out. They will not plateau upon a landing of greatness and instead descend back to irregularity and unpredictability.
We as fans will be equal parts frustrated and perplexed.
We are then inevitably lured back into believing they will truly break out. This is the bait and switch, the eternal temptation to believe. That enticement of basketball promise unfulfilled is undeniably fun and frustrating both.
As a fan of the Lakers and of Lamar Odom, I know this feeling all too well, and Wednesday night in Game 5 of the Western Conference Finals, I was rewarded for waiting.
When Odom plays to his potential, he is Los Angeles’ most versatile player. Even if he is compared to Kobe Bryant in terms of pure talent, Odom’s dynamic skill set and freakish physical capabilities make him a talent unmatched in terms of resourcefulness.
At his best, it looks as though Odom was engineered to play in the Triangle offense. His flexibility and usefulness on cross-matching defense has long been a marvel to witness. It is just a shame that we get to appreciate that marvel so infrequently.
Wednesday night, it was there. 19 boards, 14 boards and four blocks, to make no mention of the timeliness of many of his baskets. All of this from a player that had mostly been missing in action across the series’ first four games.
Kobe Bryant said after the game that he had hoped to spark the great play we saw from Odom and the rest of the Lakers’ role players by being a “decoy.” He would lure in double and triple teams and create open shots for the previously-awful supporting cast.
This plan logically makes sense: if the role players were going to play well, it would be at home, where they could thrive off of the crowd’s support and energy. In Denver, they would surely regress and get tight and lean again on Bryant to carry them.
If Bryant realized this and wanted to optimize his chances of getting a strong performance from his supporting cast whilst at home, good on him. But surely he could not have envisioned that five different Lakers finished in double digits and Andrew Bynum would only be one point off.
As strong as the rest of the Lakers role players were, none had a bigger impact than Odom.
It would be foolish to think that he might follow through and channel whatever sparked Game 5’s greatness for the rest of the playoffs. We have too much evidence to the contrary. We have been lured in one too many times to believe that Odom has finally turned a corner and will develop a sense of consistency.
Instead, we should revel in his momentary effectiveness and the role it played in winning back control of the series for the Lakers. If Odom cannot be trusted to bring that level of effort and focus every game, at least he chose his spot well in this case, delivering when Los Angeles needed him most.
He might not always be there when Bryant and Jackson call on him, but in this case at least, the enigma that is Lamar Odom was right on time.
2 Comments on "Odom Delivers As Lakers Roll"
Rashad on Thu, 28th May 2009 10:49 am
Lamar was a man last night. Now if he and the Lakers could just summon that kind of effort on consecutive nights.
Hoops Addict Article – Odom Delivers, Lakers Roll | The On Deck Circle on Wed, 15th Jul 2009 10:18 am
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