This is always the toughest road trip, or at least one of the most anticipated.

Most years, the Lakers depart from Los Angeles on a three game road trip to face the Houston Rockets, San Antonio Spurs, and Dallas Mavericks. This year, I suppose we are slightly more fortunate as the NBA only scheduled for the Lakers to play the black and white and the blue and white, leave the red out of this.

Anyway, with the Lakers starters falling down quicker than Aaron Rogers in overtime, the bench has struggled to make a name for itself. Okay, I suppose they are still the Lakers, but they aren’t THE LAKERS, they are just a part of The Lakers. Does that make sense?

Jordan Farmar and Shannon Brown have been the main attractions off the bench. They play a lot of minutes together and have found a nice rhythm that seems to get the job done. The problem really has been that without having at least Pau Gasol or Andrew Bynum in the lineup at any given time, Josh Powell and DJ Mbenga have performed far under par.

Sasha Vujacic had a nice game against Dallas last time around and perhaps he will get a chance to play extended minutes again tonight. Kobe has had back spasms, nto to mention the broken finger, and is likely to play limited minutes in the second of the back to back. Bynum has played great recently and we hope that he can continue being a dominant force in the center position. Lamar Odom needs a big triple double. Jordan needs to go on a 24 point scoring binge again. Adam Morisson needs to make some last second jumpers. Josh Powell needs to stay away from the three point line. Mbenga needs to keep blocking everything that comes near him, even if he fouls them.  Oh, and I almost forgot, Luke Walton is back, he needs to keep passing up wide open jump shots (just kidding, please drill those jumpers when you have the chance)!

After the tough loss last night in San Antonio, look for the Lakers bench to be the savior tonight. It wouldn’t surprise me to see the bench play about half the game and run the Mavs up and down the court. With Luke Walton back orchestrating a slightly more efficient triangle offense, the role players should be quite successful.

The recent losses have taken a toll on Lakers fans such as myself, but patience is a virtue and we are sure to find success if we just wait it out on these injuries. Don’t forget, Garnett is out for a while, Orlando lost Jameer Nelson for a few weeks, and Lebron is sure to miss one of his teammates for at least a few weeks at some point this season as well.

The grueling 82 game season is all about who’s standing at the end, not thirty games in!