LAKERS TAKE GAME 1 BEHIND KOBE
SUNS DEALT WAKE UP CALL IN LOS ANGELES
Lamar Odom found his groove early on Monday, and the rest of the Lakers bench followed suit. How about that? The bench looked like the Lakers' Bench Mob of old. Odom, the sixth man, came off the Lakers bench in Game 1 of the Western Conference finals at Staples Center, and he came out shooting. His shots were falling, too. Odom scored 19 points and had a playoff career-high 19 rebounds in the Lakers' 128-107 rout over the Suns. "I didn't want to wait," Odom said. "I said to myself, `If I'm going to have a bad game, I'm going to have a bad game coming out swinging. I'm not going to wait and let the game come to me.' " The Suns are known for their productive bench, but they looked more like GO INSIDE THE LAKERS: For the best around-the-clock coverage of the Lakers, visit our Inside the Lakers blog. the Lakers bench when it's ineffective. The Lakers outscored the Suns, 44-35. Jordan Farmar made 4-of-6 shots and scored 10 points and Shannon Brown made 3-of-6 shots. Josh Powell had a crowd-pleasing dunk after a missed Kobe Bryant shot. "They played extremely well, and defensively they did a good job," Bryant said. "It's tough to gauge scoring (128) points. I felt they did a great job in that stretch holding the lead. Obviously, Lamar carried the ball for that group." And the Suns bench dropped the ball, making just 13 of 32 shots. (LA Daily News)