February 27, 2008 in Phil Jackson, Practice News, Ronny Turiaf, Kobe Bryant, Sasha Vujacic and Jordan Farmar.
Beforepractice today, Kobe said that the Lakers’ bench is one of the bestgroups of reserves he’s ever played with and probably the strongestbench in the NBA right now. Coach Jackson echoed Bryant’s sentiment,noting that the key to a good bench is having players who could bestarters accept reserve roles.
Accordingto Jackson, the Lakers bench is filled with such players, referencingJordan Farmar as a key role player who comes off of the bench for L.A.Jackson said that Farmar, Sasha, Ronny and Co. make up one of the NBA’sdeepest benches, also praising the reserves in San Antonio, Utah andNew Orleans.
Bryantalso spoke about the team’s current nine-game winning streak–thelongest since the 2003-04 season when the team last won a title. Kobesaid that the team is playing with a strong purpose right now, fueledby a loss to the Atlanta Hawks at the beginning of the month that lefta “bad taste” in the teams’ mouth according to #24.
