DENVER — After Lamar Odom had just four points and four rebounds in 22:16 of foul-filled play in Game 2, Kobe Bryant quipped: “Lamar? He’ll be well rested for Game 3.”
In reality, Bryant’s erroneous approach on one play to Kenyon Martin — mindlessly crowding him instead of laying off and letting him shoot the jumper — led to Martin going by Bryant and into Odom for a foul. Overall, Phil Jackson just said of Odom in Game 2: “He didn’t do anything wrong. He was just in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
It helped considerably that Luke Walton — I told you guys he’d probably come around to be big in the postseason, didn’t I? — basically was Odom with 18 points, seven rebounds and five assists.
“Luke did a good job,” Odom said. “He saved me.”
