Halftime Hype

After a hiatus, Halftime Hype returns...

The playoffs have come around and guess who's been leading the Los Angeles Lakers thus far? If you guessed Kobe Bryant, you're incorrect. The native New Yorkers of the squad, Lamar Odom and Ron Artest, have kept their team afloat. Indeed, Pau Gasol has shot a poor 4-for-19 from the field (21%), while Bryant only scored 11 points on 3-for-10 shooting in Game 2.

Interestingly enough, throughout the course of the season, Odom and Artest probably received more criticism than any of their teammates. In fact, when Odom won the Sixth Man of the Year award on Wednesday, Los Angeles Times columnist Bill Plaschke wrote of how the forward's new reality show would provide a major distraction. Although Plaschke's column was credible, the versatile Odom responded with a commendable 16 points on 8-for-12 shooting.

True, Odom did not have a notable outing in the first game of the series - 10 points, but only one board to show for 30 minutes of playing time. However, unlike the rest of the team, the media, and Lakers fans, he wasn't phased by a Game 1 loss to the lowly Hornets. When everyone flipped out about Gasol's no-show, Odom shrugged it off.

"There isn't a player in the world who plays a sport that hasn't had a bad game," Odom told reporters.

Then there's his buddy from Queens, Artest. The former defensive player of the year has been averaging 15.5 points, 45.5% shooting, a couple three's a game, and 8.5 rebounds during the series. The 11 boards Ron grabbed on Wednesday night was a season-high. Yes, this is the same guy who began the month with point totals of 7, 5,9, and 2. There were multiple dry spells during the season, too. About a month before the All-Star break, TNT analyst Charles Barkley asked, "Does Ron Artest know the season has started already?"

Well, Artest is certainly aware that the playoffs have started.

"Ron was probably the best player we had out there," Coach Phil Jackson said after Game 1. "Kobe had a lot of points, but Ron was, I thought, keyed and ready to go and played well."

In retrospect, if someone predicted Gasol would average 8 points and 5.5 rebounds in the first two games, I would be skeptical of the Lakers' chances. If someone told me that Odom and Artest would be the key players, I would laugh. Sure, Bynum has been big - that was to be expected. Okay, Bryant scored a ton in Game 1. Yet, it is interesting that the players who constantly received flak for their unimpressive stat sheets during the season are the ones being praised during the playoffs.