In Philly, the bench is used as a spark. The starters aren’t really much better than the reserves so the Sixers use their bench guys like Williams, Young, and Turner to come in and score a lot of points on another team’s reserves. They just happen to also create plays and defend well.

I’m not kidding about Dallas and their bench. 5 of their top 8 scorers come off of the bench. their bench is better than their starters.

i agree. it’s great for Miami to outscore an opponents bench, but the Lakers bench is putrid. it shouldn’t be a sign that the Heat’s bench is amazing by outscoring World Peace and company by 7.

They played well last night, but this article should be about how bad the Lakers bench is, not how great the Heat bench is.

Total Bench Defense Rankings
Dallas 19th Philly 14th Miami 28th

Bench Steals
Dallas 2nd Philly 8th Miami 16th

Bench Rebounds
Dallas 3rd Philly 2nd Miami 9th

Bench Assists
Dallas 2nd Philly 3rd Miami 23rd

There are more but i think you get the picture. As for hustle, there isn’t a stat that i can give you to show you hustle, but if you’ve ever seen Thaddeus Young play a basketball game than you’d know that the Sixers have plenty of hustle coming from the bench. Miami doesn’t need a great bench. they have great starters. the Lakers bench is AWFUL, i agree.

I also never said that Philly or Dallas were better than Miami. I said that they have more depth than Miami. The Sixers have 7 guys that average 10 points or more, 3 of whom come off the bench. That’s depth. And yes there is more to a bench than scoring. Look at my links below and they’ll show you that those 2 benches do a lot more than the Heat bench, which justifiably doesn’t play as much because of Miami’s starter.

Initially I didn’t really read your long winded response. Now that I’ve had some time to digest your ridiculous “point” I have this to say…… Dwayne Wade. Remember him? He was on our bench. James Jones was playing for him. For God’s sake we played Eddy Curry and he actually scored. Battier was a beast, Haslem was also a beast. Miller was great as was Cole.

You see I just started watching last year and even I understand that the bench doesn’t necessarily have to score tons of points, they have to create plays and defend well. Both of which we did.

And for my sanities sake I hope you were just kidding about Dallas and their depth…. I mean seriously…

In the past, one of the ways you beat the Heat was by taking advantage of their bench.

This time around, there were multiple points in this game (especially in the third quarter) where the Heat actually extended the lead when LeBron was sitting and bench players were in, supporting Bosh.

That’s huge.

No overwhelming statistical performances outside of LBJ, but nickels add up.

Battier’s perimeter defense and timely three point shooting was exactly what the Heat had in mind when they targeted him this offseason.

Now if you are trying to tell me that those two teams don’t have the best benches in the league than you’re dumber than I thought. Let me throw some numbers at you.

Dallas’s Bench is ranked first in Offense, 3 pointers made, 3 pointers attempted, defensive rebounds, and field goals attempted. They are second in steals, assists, and rebounds. They are third in FT attempts, FT made, Field Goals made, and Efficiency

Philly is first in field goals made. Second in field goal percentage, field goals attempted, and efficiency.They are also 3rd in rebounds, defensive rebounds, Offense, and 4th in assists.

Plus I have watched every single Sixers game on the year and have seen several Dallas games as well and can tell you that they are the two best benches in the NBA. If you still don’t believe me here are the sources for you.

http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/philadelphia-76ers/bench/rankings/12/23/7

http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/dallas-mavericks/bench/rankings/12/6/7

Oh and here is miami’s… 25th in offense, 28th in defense
http://www.hoopsstats.com/basketball/fantasy/nba/miami-heat/bench/rankings/12/15/7

What you didn’t mention was the hustle that the heat bench showed. The stupid fouls . No defense what so ever. How many balls were the lakers running down last night? How many times did you see a Heat bench player running around scrambling for rebounds? I promise you that most of our bench rebounds came off of pure hustle not balls falling in there laps.

Does Miami have the best bench in the league? Maybe not, but its pretty damn close. nothing to be taken away from the bench’s of Dallas, Philly or the Thunder because they’re all solid. But don’t take away from Miami’s bench because the lakers looked bad last night.

Heat embarrassed Dallas already this season. Heat plays Philly tomorrow night. Without Wade. Again. We’ll see really soon if the Heat can meet the challenge.

LOL!!… Dallas and Philly are your comparisons? You must not have cable or access to watch any games.

I don’t usually comment on your Heat love affair because sometimes it’s justified, but come on. This is ridiculous. If you want to talk about how bad the Lakers bench was, go ahead, but to sit hear and lie to the American public about how the Heat have solved their depth issues is just bad reporting. If you want to watch a team with depth watch Dallas or Philly. There are multiple guys on each of those benches that could outscore the entire Heat bench on any given night. Those teams have depth. The Heat have Eddy Curry. ’nuff said

Other than Kobe, they have nothing on the perimeter that scares you. The Miami defense easily shut down the likes of Barnes, Fisher, and Artest.

Gasol and Bynum had decent enough offensive games, but it wasn’t nearly enough to compensate for Kobe being bad through three and a half quarters.

Having Odom on the Lakers wouldn’t have affected this game much at all… the way it played out, the Lakers still would’ve lost. With some different bounces, and Kobe getting hot earlier, the Lakers could easily have won this game by 10, and again having or not having Odom wouldn’t have made a lick of difference–his single game stats usually being more or less coincidental with how the game played out or whether it was a win or a loss for the Lakers.

Just look at his impact in Dallas, which, if we are honest about it, is exactly what we could and should expect from him playing at his usual level, and is not some bizarre anomaly, requiring a special character narrative and set of explanations and excuses about “Lamar” every time Dallas takes the court.

We could jump ahead in time by just turning the volume on the Lamar story way down NOW instead of later on this season, by just realizing that he is more or less just an average player. I did mention to some Dallas fans at the time of the trade “prepare to be underwhelmed”… and I guess I am somewhat amazed at how much denial goes along with their being underwhelmed. Anyways, this shouldn’t be the focus of the NBA. And honestly he was creeping me out a bit at the end of the Laker game. How about everybody just move on, play ball, or not, or whatever.