Bench Seating Assumes Priority Role for Lakers

INDIANAPOLIS —  On the road, the Laker reserves have to do more than score, rebound and defend. They have to be cheerleaders as well.

They can’t dance as well as the Laker Girls, but they’re making their own contribution to the Lakers’ success away from home.

“At home, you get energy from the crowd,” guard Brian Shaw said. “You feed off your home crowd. When you’re on the road, you know it’s just us. Everybody around the arena, especially in the close seats, has something to say. We just look to one another for support--more so than we do at home--to keep us together and keep us unified.”

“We take it seriously,” forward Mark Madsen said after the Lakers improved to 10-4 on the road with a 109-90 victory over the Indiana Pacers at Conseco Fieldhouse Wednesday night. “There’s nothing better than getting a score or a rebound and just feeling or hearing the bench just erupt. There’s no better feeling. I appreciate it when I’m out there making a play, and I think Shaq and Kobe appreciate it when they’re out there making plays. It’s just a tight group. The closeness of the group is what makes us very good right now.”

Everyone likes acknowledgment, whether it’s a kid looking for her parents at the piano recital or a superstar playing on the road.

“You make a spectacular play, you point at them, you look at them,” said Kobe Bryant, who had the fellas howling and hollering with a sweet reverse layup in the third quarter. “We get each other pumped up that way. You can see the camaraderie that we have.”

Spectacular is all relative, of course. When guard Mitch Richmond got his creaky legs together for a fastbreak dunk, it brought all of the bench players out of their seats for one of their biggest cheers of the night.

Mess up, and it’s cause for review. When Devean George failed to spot an open Richmond on the break and took an ill-advised shot, he got an earful from Robert Horry. Shaw and Lindsey Hunter spent the next 30 seconds critiquing the play for themselves. They broke it down like Statler and Waldorf, the cranky old critics on “The Muppet Show,” noting how you have to go to Richmond in that scenario, especially after he had just made a three-pointer on his last shot.

Hunter and Shaw spent most of the night sitting next to each other. Hunter played 21 minutes, Shaw didn’t see any playing time. Laker Coach Phil Jackson asked him if he wanted to play the final 3:18 of the game, but Shaw said he felt cold and tight, so he stayed in his comfortable chair at the end of the bench.

“They’ve got some good leather on this seat,” he said, rubbing it.

There’s a protocol that dictates seating assignments.

“The person with the most seniority sits where they want, then it just trickles down,” Shaw said. “I like going to the end, because sometimes the coaches stand up and they get in the way [up front]. You get a better vantage point from the end of the bench.”

Lately, Madsen has been sitting between George and Horry. He likes sitting next to Horry so he can ask the nine-year veteran for tips on playing power forward. (On Wednesday, for example, Horry told him not to leave his man to double-team a point guard who is as skillful a passer as Indiana’s Jamaal Tinsley.)

On the bench, as stationary targets, the players have to absorb trash talk tossed their way by the fans. The Indiana fans spent most of their time spewing venom at the referees Wednesday, so that made it easier for the players. Besides, there wasn’t much they could say when the Lakers were pounding their team for the whole second half.

It was hotter against the Detroit Pistons at the Palace of Auburn Hills the night before.

A fan behind the bench was getting on Bryant, so Madsen turned to him and pointed at the scoreboard during a timeout. That only made the heckler switch targets and start pouring it on Madsen.

He told him: “Turn around one more time, see if you don’t get twisted up,” Shaw recalled.

“I stepped up for [Madsen]. Then I talked about the guy so bad that he apologized. I talked about how he looked. I told him he looked like Jill Scott.”

Shaw found the locals much nicer at Conseco Fieldhouse.

Some state congressmen had the Indiana Gas Company seats on the baseline next to the Laker bench, and Shaw spent some time chatting with state Sen. Bob Meeks, state Rep. Win Moses and Moses’ wife, Tammy.

Bryant had a playful, running feud with some fans seated across the court from the Laker bench. They howled especially loud when Bryant missed two open dunks in the second half. But when Bryant left with 9:07 left in the fourth, there were 31 points next to his name on the board.

Bryant walked to the bench, looked across the court at his rivals, and put his hand to his ear. That didn’t shut them up, so he responded with a couple of words: “Two rings.”

Then Kobe tossed his wristband over his shoulder to a fan wearing his jersey. Other players followed. It looked like they were feeding the dolphins at Sea World. O’Neal threw a rolled-up towel toward press row.

The Laker superstars are spending quality time on the bench in the fourth quarter lately, as the Lakers have won these three road games by an average of 22.7 points.

“I love it,” O’Neal said. “I’m resting, I’m chilling.”

The only thing he hasn’t been able to do is work on his synchronized head-bobbing routine that he and Hunter displayed during a blowout in November.

“We will,” O’Neal said. “We’re going to get it.”

In case you were wondering, it has a name.

“Step, step, unh,” O’Neal said, bobbing his head twice and then snapping it to his left.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at [email protected].