BOSTON—It’s their secret weapon, their ace in the hole, their unexpected cameo appearance that makes the movie.The second-string contingent of Luke Walton, Sasha Vujacic, Ronny Turiaf and Jordan Farmar – affectionately known as the “Bench Mob” – has been all of those things for the Lakers all season long, but in Game 1, that ol’ bench magic just wasn’t there. Meanwhile, Boston’s sub squad, described as being too old and too inconsistent to match the talent, energy and cohesion of L.A.’s second unit ended up outscoring the Lakers 17-15 on Thursday. The Lakers’ sixth man through 10th man fell seven points below its 22.2 post season scoring average and L.A. lost by 10. For all of the talk about Kobe Bryant’s 9-for-26 struggles, Walton, Vujacic, Turiaf and Farmar combined to go an equally anemic 5-for-15. Jackson’s blunder On Friday, Phil Jackson protected his bench players, citing that his changes to the Lakers’ rotation could have been the cause for the mob’s drop off. “I really shortened the minutes of the bench last night, so that's not their fault about not scoring and no productivity,” Jackson said. “The adjustments that our younger plays will make, our bench players will be noticeable as we go through.” Some of those adjustments will surely include finding a way to get better shots for the bench guys when they enter the game. Turiaf was baited into several jump shots out of his range, Vujacic was reverting to putting the ball on the floor rather than playing to his skills with catch-and-shoot attempts and Luke Walton ended up forcing both of his shot attempts. Smith’s style In Dean Smith’s early days of coaching at the University of North Carolina, the legendary coach employed an en masse substitution pattern. In order to get the most out of every player on his roster, Smith guaranteed playing time to his non-starters and plugged them into the game as a group for at least four to five minutes each half. Jackson usually uses the Bench Mob in a similar capacity, throwing the four of them out on the court on the same time and encouraging them to open up the offense by pushing the tempo and scoring out of transition and quick hitters. In Game 1 however, the unit was split up, and just like they say a finger is weak but a fist is strong, the individuals lost their mob mentality without being on the court simultaneously. AP | 
