It's too bad people can't just shut up about Itachi. The only people who keep beinging him up are the Itachi-nazis, and everyone hates his character because they like him.
As far as poor Lee goes, he's gotta be the unluckiest bastard in this series. If this were a straw-draw, he got the shortest straw every time, picking all the people whom physical attacks were useless against. His attacks are meant to be faster than a person is able to see, which makes me dislike the idea of Kimimaro being able to counter them, but whatever, not my story to tell. I think that if he went up against Neji, he would have lost for this same reason. He just has to lose.
As far as everyone and their mother showing up, this is a paltry sum of people compared to the first Level 1 Sasuke episode where he wooped up on the Sound nins. Remember? Lee shows up, gets whooped (by two people, this time, one who nullifies the physical attack). Then Chouji, Shika, and whats-her-face-loser show up. (For all of you that don't remember, the particular whats-her-face-loser is Ino, not Sakura, who had already been beaten up at this point.) They get semi-whooped, and Neji and Tenten show up.
So it was 3 teams versus 1, when this time it's... well...2.5 versus 1.66. Things are looking up for the leafs! (I need a little cartoon character in the bottom right side of my reply to say: "Yeah, they have the Sand for allies, you dummy!")
-xtortout