The Los Angeles Lakers play their fourth game of their season-long nine-game road trip on Tuesday night in New Jersey against an average Nets team, but this game noteworthy because of the expected debut of Pau Gasol in a Laker uniform.
Barring a flare-up of a sore back that caused Gasol to miss three of his last four games with the Memphis Grizzlies, he will suit up for the first time with Kobe Bryant on Co.
"It's getting there, good enough to perform well," Gasol said. "I have it under control. I'm working hard with the trainers and physical therapists, and it's looking good."
His presence gives L.A. a post player it has been missing since Andrew Bynum went out with a knee injury (he is expected to miss another six weeks).
"He's got a lot of positions he can play, but he's long. Really long," Lakers Coach Phil Jackson said of Gasol. "That will be important for us to get the post part of our game back. Kobe [Bryant] has taken a lot of post position, Ronny [Turiaf] has done some good things in the post, but we haven't had any real dedicated post part of our game."
Gasol, the 2002 Rookie of the Year and an All-Star in 2006, is averaging 18.9 points and 8.8 rebounds while shooting 50.1 percent from the field and a career-best 81.9 percent from the free-throw line. He is averaging 20.7 points and shooting 55.6 percent in his last three games against New Jersey.
He took a crash course on the triangle offense Monday afternoon. Jackson walked Gasol through the complex offense while trying to avoid overwhelming the newest Laker in his first practice with the team."I'm still trying to get a feel for the triangle offense and all the options and the reads," said Gasol. "I don't think it's hard to learn that offense. You just have to get used to it and get into that flow, that rhythm. I'm going to do my best to learn it."
Jackson said he expected it to take Gasol two weeks to learn the triangle.
Without Bynum, the Lakers have gone 5-5, including 2-1 on their current road trip, which ends Feb. 13 at Minnesota.
In L.A.'s first meeting with New Jersey this season, Bryant made seven of 21 shots and missed a potential tying free throw with 6.1 seconds left in the Lakers' 102-100 home loss. Richard Jefferson led New Jersey with 27 points in that game.
The Nets suffered a season-high nine-game losing streak from Jan. 11-27, but have fared better in their last three games. After winning back-to-back contests, though, New Jersey lost 104-92 at Atlanta on Saturday despite shooting 51.4 percent.
The Nets gave up 58 points in the paint -- eight shy of their season high.
"It was our lack of effort that caused us to lose," said Nets guard Vince Carter, who had 14 points and a season-high 10 assists. "When you allow a team to score 50-plus points in the paint, it's going to be difficult to win."
L.A. is 13-9 on the road this season, while the Nets are 10-14 at home; the Lakers are 6.5-point favorites on WagerWeb.com.
No comments:
Post a Comment