As easy as it would be for me to sit here and praise Kobe Bryant after his ridiculous Suns-slaying buzzer beater, I'm not going to. I'm going to rave about his teammate Lamar Odom. After all, I owe the guy. A few days back, in my "Been Like Mike" blog, I lambasted Odom. I referred to him as a Scottie Pippen wannabee and said that scoring-wise he "defers more than a timid first date." Today, during the Los Angeles Lakers' Game Four victory over the Phoenix Suns, Odom did anything but defer. He scored 25 points on 7-of-16 shooting. Normally a poor free throw shooter, he even stepped his game up from the line and hit 11-of-14 free throws. It was Kobe who, as usual, delivered the clutch heroics, but make no mistake about it-The Lakers would have lost this game without the inspired play of Odom. Lakers Head Coach Phil Jackson playoff strategy has been for Kobe to distribute the ball more often and his teammates to be more aggressive. This strategy has paid dividends for Odom more than anyone, especially with Jackson entrusting Odom with a large share of the ball-handling duties. With the Lakers sticking to Jackson's game plan, Odom also added 8 rebounds, 5 assists, a steal and a block. He played tremendous defense while showing more versatility than James Bond's Aston Martin. Odom even outplayed Mr. Versatility himself, Suns F Boris Diaw. I guess what I am trying to say is that I saw something today. I saw more than just a bunch of stragglers being carried by the best coach and the best player in basketball. I saw Lamar Odom playing Scottie Pippen to Kobe Bryant's Michael Jordan. They play of this dynamic duo gave its Laker teammates a huge lift. Luke Walton suddenly looked like Toni Kukoc. Kwame Brown showed shades of Horace Grant (well, at least shades of Harvey Grant). Smush Parker, Sasha Vujacic, Devean George and Brian Cook also contributed. If Odom continues this type of play the Lake Show can make some serious noise in these playoffs.