Pau Gasol made his return last night to the Lakers and for at least one night, everything seemed to be working in Laker land. Pau finished with 24 points, 13 rebounds and 3 assists.
More important than all of the statistical contributions that Pau made is the affect he had on other players. For one, Lamar Odom moved back to the bench, thus stabilizing an otherwise shaky group. Kobe, instead of being perched in the low post for the entire game, rotated between the perimeter and post, giving a better balance to both the Lakers overall game plan and his personal game. And Mbenga, a tough but limited player who should only see minutes in cases of desperate need, rightly moved to the end of the bench and only saw time during the extended garbage time at the end of the game.
So far the season has been incomplete (it’s impossible to judge a team when they are missing arguably their 2nd best player), but with Pau back, we can finally begin to determine who these Lakers really are. One dominant game against a relatively limited talented but scrappy Chicago Bulls team is not enough to pass judgement, but it is a great start. Looking forward to more games with Pau.
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