Empty the Bench

Good basketball teams excel at identifying their opponent’s weak spots and exploiting them over and over and over again until the adjustment is made. This axiom is especially true during the playoffs, when over the course of a seven-game series both teams become as familiar with each other as they are with the back of their hands.

That’s why adjustments-on-the-fly by the coaching staffs are so crucial to a team’s success, especially as you get deeper and deeper into the playoffs and the competition gets better and better. Well, right now LA Lakers head coach Phil Jackson has one such adjustment to make before Game 5 Wednesday night back at the Staples Center. The Jazz have evened the series back up at 2-2, are gaining their confidence back, and know that if they can steal Game 5 there’s an excellent chance they can wrap it up at home Friday night. (The Jazz were a league-best 37-4 at home during the regular season.)

Jordan Farmar Photo Credit: Icon SMI

The Utah Jazz have partly put themselves in this considerably better position by better sharing the ball as well as the scoring load: in Game 5, they racked up 32 assists—the most in a single game so far—and had six players score at least 12 points (and Ronnie Brewer bagged 8). They’ve done it by hitting the boards, scoring easy buckets on fast breaks, and by getting big offensive and defensive contributions from their bench.

The bench.

That’s where the Jazz have had the advantage over the Lakers these last two games, a surprise considering how deep and effective the LA’s bench has been all season. And that’s where they’ve found and exploited a specific weakness of the Lakers, and that’s where Phil Jackson has a tough question to answer. It’s with their backup PG, 21-year-old Jordan Farmar, who right now is struggling through perhaps his worst stretch of the season and is getting absolutely abused by the Jazz as soon as he steps foot on the floor.

Obviously, this couldn’t have come at a worse time.

More on the Utah Jazz exploiting the LA Lakers’ Jordan Farmar after the jump…

Through the first four games Farmar, who made great strides during the regular season in this is second year in the league, is averaging 1 point, 1 assist, and 8% FG in about 12 minutes/per. Those cringeworthy numbers don’t even tell the whole story though: more than the lack of any offensive contributions whatsoever, on defense Farmar has been made to look like a swinging door at an Old Western saloon. It doesn’t matter whether it’s Deron Williams (who was brilliant on Sunday) or his backup, Ronnie Price, in there for the Jazz—when they look up and see Farmar, they’re blowing by him for a layup, open jumper, or to kick out to an open teammate on the perimeter.

If you haven’t seen these last two games, Farmar’s total plus/minus says it all: -29. Just in case you’re not sure what that is, plus/minus is calculated by looking at the total points scored for the Lakers versus the total points scored against the Lakers while he is in game.

It’s really gotten to the point where I don’t think Jackson can keep trotting Farmar out there. Both of us here at ETB think this kid has the ability to be a pretty good player in this league before too long, but right now his confidence is clearly shot and the Jazz know it.

Now, I won’t pretend to know the answer for what the Lakers can do to compensate… but they have to figure out something, and that something isn’t playing Derek Fisher for 48 minutes. Speaking of Fisher, there’s now an increased onus on him to play well and stay out of foul trouble because of Farmar’s struggles. He wasn’t able to do that on Sunday, playing just 28 minutes after getting whistled a few times early.

And that forced Jackson to play Farmar for 18:42 minutes of Sunday afternoon’s thrilling 123-115 win by the Jazz, the most he’s logged so far in the postseason. The Jazz couldn’t have been happier to see so much of him.

Tags: Utah Jazz, Jordan Farmar, Los Angeles Lakers, Derek Fisher