The supporting cast

It's Oscars night, so it seems appropriate to talk about the character actors, er, role players.

Once again, the Lakers went 10-11 deep last night. Expect to see more of this for two reasons:

It will keep the stars fresh down the stretch and into the playoffs -- particularly when there's back-to-backs like tonight. The other is that they've been able to handle it.

Said Phil Jackson, when asked if he expects the bench to play like this consistently (the implication being when they play better teams than the Clippers):

``They’ll play like that if they get the minutes. They’re confident. In the playoffs, things will happen – it will be a little different. That’s always been the way it is. But right now they’re supporting our team in a good way in the regular season.''

Derek Fisher noted that while he could play 35-40 minutes per game, it's nice that he doesn't have to.