Rough game last night against the Timberwolves (congratulations Charles, why don't you blog about it?), and the Lakers are in a tough spot for tonight. The players benched for suspension or injury would actually be a pretty good squad: Kobe, Luke, Lamar, Vlad, and Mihm.

Besides not having those four players, many of the playesr are going to be tired because of the double overtime loss. Cook played 49 minutes (and guarded KG), Evans 44 minutes, Smush 42, Bynum 38.

So here's what I would do against the Bucks tonight.

Michael Redd

Vujacic and Evans are going to have to be the ones covering Redd, so one of them must always be in the game (and working hard). I just don't think Smush or McKie can handle it, and nobody elses matches up in size or speed. McKie may have to try, but in the end only Evans really has a chance of shutting Redd down like Kobe could.

Forwards

The missing players' positions: SG, SF, F, PF, FC. Because Kobe can guard small forwards, call him a GF and a pattern emerges: the Lakers are down five guys who can handle one of the two forward positions.

With Evans already spoken for, that leaves only Turiaf and Cook for both spots. The options for spelling them are (1) whatever non-Redd time Evans can spare (with him already tired that's dangerous), (2) having Kwame play PF with Bynum at center (but Kwame is also Bynum's only backup at the center spot, so that'd be rough) and (3) McKie skipping Redd but spending some time at SF on Ruben Patterson (questionable).

So I guess I would say start Smush, Evans, Cook, Turiaf and Bynum. Have the backup squad be Farmar, Vujacic, McKie, Kwame and one of the non-Smush starters. Given Phil's recent habits, he'll probably go with Shammond over Farmar, but PG is the only spot we've got extra guys at (obviously, since I have McKie as backup SF), that's no big deal. Except for Turiaf, those "starters" played 38-49 minutes last night, so expect to see the backup squad plus Turiaf a lot. A separate issue is why Phil didn't go to some of those guys more in the Timberwolves game, especially at the end.

Hope

The Lakers will probably lose. Oh, that's not hope. Well, this is the new NBA, and Andrew's points give me something to cling to. Maybe Smush can guard Redd or Patterson. Maybe we'll see Vujacic spend some time at PF. Height no longer matters, just toughness.

All I know is, when we get Kobe and a few forwards back, things are going to seem easy by comparison. At least Phil gets to have some fun coaching challenges until then.

Today's photographic nomination is in Wacky / Abstract:

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