NBA PLAYOFFS ..... 1-0 .... + $ 500.00
Gasol stunned them all by draining the shot, then scored twice more during a key fourth-quarter surge that helped secure a 100-86 victory Friday night and put Los Angeles in control of the first-round playoff series.
Lakers star Pau Gasol rediscovered his missing game just in time, breaking out of his slump to put the game away late, Dave McMenamin writes. Story
Kobe Bryant, who led the Lakers with 30 points.
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The win gave the Lakers a 2-1 lead in the best-of-seven series, with Game 4 in New Orleans on Sunday. Just as important, the performance re-established Gasol as one of the Lakers' primary scoring threats following two poor outings. He finished with 17 points and 10 rebounds.:toast:
Lakers coach Phil Jackson figured Gasol was bound to start playing better.
He is just too good a basketball player. He can shoot, he can handle the ball, he can do a lot of things. It's just a matter of him finding a comfort zone out there," Jackson said. "I didn't expect him to find it out on the 3-point line, but we are not surprised when he makes those shots."
On Friday he showed up to the tune of 17 points and 10 rebounds, with 13 points coming in the second half.
They just had a collective effort tonight," Paul said of the Lakers. "Everybody pitched in and that's what we really can't let them do. ... We fought. We played a great first half. It's just, in the second half it got away from us.":0008
Bryant's intensity was evident from the opening minutes when he violently rejected Carl Landry's attempted close-range shot out of bounds. Soon after, he cut into the lane for a vicious one-handed jam.:scared
Hornets fans' attempts at booing or heckling him only seemed to help him focus. Hitting on his typical array of demoralizing 3s and off-balance jumpers off the glass, he had 15 points in the first half. He didn't need to take the game over in the second because of Gasol's emergence, which the Lakers thought was overdue after he averaged only eight points, about 11 below his average, during the first two games of the series.
It was Bryant's 80th playoff game with at least 30 points, second on the all-time list behind Michael Jordan's 109.
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Lets just face it.
Lakers move on
