NEW ORLEANS—For much of the Lakers’ 100-86 Game 3 win in the opening-round series against the Hornets here, we seemed destined for another round of what’s-wrong-with-Pau-Gasol stories. He was just 2-for-4 in the first half, with four points and four rebounds, looking like the spectator-ish Gasol that got through the first two games of this series with just 16 total points, 11 rebounds and 21.1 percent shooting.
But at the end of the third quarter, Gasol got mad. He’d been hit with a traveling violation with 42.8 seconds to go in the third, a call that he could only shake his head over. The next time down, he thought he had an easy two points over Hornets big man D.J. Mbenga, but the play was waved off, the refs having called a foul on Willie Green before the shot. Gasol disagreed.
He roared his frustration, his neck stretched, his mouth clenched, his tendons visible. He stepped to the free-throw line, made the sign of the cross—he probably need a little absolution after the foul words that flashed across his head in the wake of the call—and made both free throws.
“Just trying to explode a little bit and get myself going, be a little more aggressive out there, more explosive out there, get my body to explode,” Gasol explained. “That’s kind of what I tried to do on that play. I didn’t think I got fouled on that first play, I guess they called it. Then I exploded and finished well even though it didn’t count. I continued to play and got myself going out there.”
Did he ever. Too long playing the powerless forward in this series, Gasol started the fourth quarter by sinking a—believe it—3-pointer that bounced a five-point Laker lead back to eight at 10:52. He was posted up on the left block on the Lakers’ next possession and found Steve Blake for an open 3-pointer that pushed the lead to 10. He had a shot blocked by the Hornets’ Emeka Okafor, but grabbed the rebound and followed with a layup. He then nailed a 13-foot jumper from the left post at 8:36, and in just a little more than two minutes, Gasol almost singlehandedly pushed that five-point lead into a 14-point edge that the Hornets had no chance of cutting into.
Gasol’s final line: 17 points on 7-for-13 shooting, 10 rebounds and four assists. Not exactly a soft set of numbers—and not exactly a surprise to his teammates.
“He is going to continue to play,” forward Lamar Odom said. “He is tough. He doesn’t get enough credit for that, how strong he is mentally, the way he just keeps playing, keeps playing, keeps playing. He is going to get his shots.”
Of course, Gasol doesn’t always get his shots. There are nights—and there were plenty this season—in which he takes too few attempts, in which he is too satisfied to be a facilitator rather than an in-the-paint force. What’s odd about Gasol’s case, though, is that it only takes a bad game or two for folks in Lakerland and all over the league to start questioning his intestinal fortitude. The “soft” label gets thrown around in Gasol’s vicinity more often than anywhere outside a Charmin factory, which is pretty remarkable considering the guy has won two championships with L.A. and has had a stellar international career as the leader of the Spanish national team, one of the three most successful teams of this generation.
“You have to understand how much basketball he has played,” Odom said. “Since he came here, the Finals, the World Championship, the Olympics, the Finals, the Finals. He hasn’t had too many bad games in between those. So, an off night, so what?”
At this point, there has been so much discussion about Gasol and his supposed softness that he is able to tune it out. What he cares about, he says, is taking a bad game and getting better the next time out. He was better in Game 2 than in Game 1. He was even better in Game 3. Naturally, he’s expecting good things in Game 4.
“I don’t think I have to prove anything, really,” Gasol said. “I think people know the kind of player that I am and what I’ve done. You can have a couple of tough games, bottom line, if the team wins that is ultimately what is important. I was upset the first game, my performance, didn’t contribute enough to have a chance to win that game. Second game, I think it was better even though I struggled shooting, but I was more aggressive and made plays in different aspects. Today, better game. Sunday, I hope I will continue this line, this ascending line.”
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