LOS ANGELES - The Lakers have come to expect at least one of their "Bench Mob" players to fill a void every game.

In Sunday's Game 1 of their second-round series against the Jazz, it was Sasha Vujacic. And he did it in a big way.

Vujacic dropped 15 points on the Jazz, a playoff career high. He made 4 of 6 shots, including both of his three-pointers, and all five of his free throws.

"It's not me, it's the team," said Vujacic, who also had four rebounds. "They got me open looks and I felt good. They just went in."

Before the series started, Coach Phil Jackson told Vujacic he would be matched up against Utah's Kyle Korver, a player the Lakers see as similar to Vujacic in that both are tremendous outside shooters and scrappy on defense.

Korver had 11 points but missed 5 of 7 shots.

"I'm going to try to do my best to try to come in and shut him down," Vujacic said.

Fish Does it With Defense

Derek Fisher was all over the court Sunday, diving for loose balls. He had six steals, a playoff career high.

"It wasn't a high offensive opportunity game for me," said Fisher, who had just five points on 2-of-6 shooting. "So anytime you play 38 minutes, you should be able to do some other things to help your team win."

Fisher also had six assists and did a good job defensively on Utah point guard Deron Williams, who finished with 14 points on 5-for-18 shooting.

"Deron is a phenomenal talent," Fisher said. "He'll come back on Wednesday night and be extremely aggressive."

No Surprises From Sloan

Jerry Sloan has been Utah's coach for 20 seasons, and not much has changed during that time.

Sloan's teams always have been known for being efficient teams that run the best pick-and-roll in the NBA and make the best cuts.

Jackson said he thinks the Jazz has added three new offensive sets since about 1998.

"He probably would say about the same thing of our team, too," Jackson said of Sloan. "For the last 15 years or so, we pretty much know what's going to be run."

Walton Ailing

All those days off were not a good thing for Luke Walton, who came down with an upper respiratory infection that continued to bother him Sunday.

"All I was doing was sitting around the house doing nothing and got hit with something," said Walton, who had five points and three rebounds in 13 minutes. "I don't have any energy. Hopefully the adrenaline will help because that's all I've got."

Phil Takes Aim at TV

Jackson took the opportunity for another shot at the format for nationally televised games.

"They take 2 hours and 45 minutes, and our locally televised games take 2 hours and 15 minutes," Jackson said. "I like to say that, by the way, they've ruined the game."

Sunday's game took 2:39 to play.

http://www.pe.com/sports/basketball/bre ... 4b058.html

i sure hope sasha'll be a candidate for sixth man of the year. that is, if bynum doesn't play off the bench. hopefully we'll see bynum in the starting lineup in that dream lineup we've all been salivating over for months.

Didn't they already announce Manu Ginnobli sixth man of the year??