Game Rewind: Gasol to the Rescue – Lakers 104, Timberwolves 92

Kobe is injured!  We are all doomed!!  But wait… what’s that?  It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s… a giant bearded chicken?  No!  It’s Pau Gasol to the rescue!!!

Watch out, T-Wolves, here comes Pau!!!

Living in Los Angeles has loads of advantages, the weather, the beaches, the culture and the beautiful people.  But the biggest perk of all has to be having not one but two basketball superstars.  Tonight’s game was a stark reminder of that fact.  With Kobe slowed by what turned out to be a fractured finger, Pau Gasol took off the Robin costume and borrowed Kobe’s Batman cowl for the evening to lead the Lakers to victory.

Because Gasol is foreign, unassuming and sports a scraggly beard, people have a tendency to forget that he is also one of the best players in the game.  He can score inside, he can score outside, he is an excellent rebounder and one of the best passing big men of his generation.  All of those traits were on display tonight with Pau saving the Lakers from the perils of a lack of focus and a wounded leader and delivering them to an eventually comfortable victory.  His line for the night was simply staggering: 17 points, 20 rebounds, and 7 assists.  How many other big men in the league are even capable of stuffing the stat sheet like that?  Who even cares that it came against the lowly T-Wolves, that is just damned impressive and every Laker fan would be well served to remember just how lucky they are to have him around.

• Stop the presses!  A 3-for-3 shooting night for the Machine!  It is about damn time.  If Phil is smart, and I think 10 championship rings is sufficient evidence towards proving that statement correct, then he should be sure to give Sasha an extended look in the Lakers’ next game to see if he can’t continue to build on this success.
• Stop the presses again!  Odom scores in double-digits!  I can finally stop making that my pre-game prediction!  I don’t know why I am using so many exclamation points!!!!!!
• At least the night wasn’t a total loss for Kurt Rambis who got to pick up his championship ring before the game.  I’m going to go ahead and suggest that he keep that sucker stored somewhere safe, because it may be the last one he gets, especially if he stays in the basketball black hole that is Minnesota.

Lake Show Outtakes:

• Yes, Kobe’s finger is fractured.  That sounds terrible, but let’s not forget that Kobe has been playing with another bad finger the last few seasons and hasn’t really let it slow him down.  I think it might take a few games for the Mamba to get used to having another busted digit, but it isn’t like he is suddenly going to turn into Smush Parker.
• Lamar Odom really needs to lay off the three-pointers he missed a few threes by a mile tonight (not as bad as Sasha Pavlovic’s airball free throw, but still pretty bad) and they weren’t even good looks.  He is just way too trigger happy from downtown right now.
• I have never been the biggest Stu Lantz fan out there, but I have also never heard a Laker TV broadcast where he wasn’t color commentator.  Not to knock on Hot Rod Hundley (though I am not sure that calling him Hot Rod is apropos when he sounds like he took a handful of Ambien right before the game), but it just isn’t the same without Stu.  Would it really have been so much to ask for Hundley to give us an, “on the Lakers basketball network?”

Tags: Game Rewind, Kobe Bryant, Kurt Rambis, Lamar Odom, Pau Gasol, Sasha Vujacic, Stu Lantz