It might be time to re-consider how much we howl about Pau Gasol(notes)
Coming off the heels of a Game 3 that seemed all-too-typical amongst Laker losses, the usual bleating (with yours truly tending to yell loudest, above all) about the lack of Pau in the post appeared to re-emerge. The Lakers lost by four, and Gasol only got 11 shots. He made nine of them, made just as many free throws as Kobe in four fewer attempts, while making nine of those 11 field goals overall.
He’s often unguardable in the post by Rashard Lewis(notes). He can even face up Lewis down low, and score. If doubled, he can find the open man better than just about any big man in the NBA. The Laker offense needs to go from the inside-out. Same attributes. Same stuff I was banging my head about, after dozens of games, during the regular season, and over the first three rounds of this postseason.
Why has my tone changed, after a loss that seemed a mirror image? Why am I defending a night where Kobe Bryant(notes) took 25 shots and Gasol managed only 11 attempts? Well, I can’t completely defend that night. Nobody can.
Bryant needed to find Gasol more often. Gasol scored an almost uncontested dunk on the first play of Tuesday’s Game 3 and was just as unstoppable in the fourth quarter, and the space between, so it wasn’t as if the Lakers had hot and cold streaks in order to pick and choose as to when they’d find Gasol. He was ready to rock all game long.
But there’s a lot more to this offense that obvious scores off of assists (like Gasol hitting a cutter), isolation moves and scores (Gasol takes two dribbles and knocks in the lefty hook, he’s awesome), or hockey assists (Fisher got that wide-open corner three because Gasol found Ariza, the Magic collapsed, and the next pass found Fisher; it all starts with Pau, he’s awesome).
The Magic bump cutters. Sometimes they get away with it, sometimes they don’t, but as a function of having two smallish forwards instead of one small and one power forward, it means they have to protect the low post before someone even sets up on it, and it also means they have defenders who are fleet of foot enough (again, no lumbering power forwards) to knock and overplay a guy as he’s flashing from the weak side.
So, while all of that’s going on, the Lakers can call for a different screen on the strong side and score, or quickly reverse the ball starting with a pass to the top of the key, and run a guard-around screen. All while Orlando’s eyes are focused on the orthodox move of swinging that awesome 7-footer from the weak side baseline to the low post on the strong side.
On top of that, you have the big plays that Gasol is part of where he makes the initial strong pass that eventually leads to the score; without even giving him the benefit of an assist or a hockey assist. Pau mentioned this at media availability on Wednesday.
“For the most part when you get the big men in the offense first you become a passer because there’s a lot of cutting, a lot of cutting from the wings, a lot of cutting from the weak side, so there’s always something going on unless we decide that we’re going to be in isolation for the guy on the post.”
If this seems like an excuse for not finding him enough in the fourth quarter, well, it is. But first I want to get into something that drove me batty. Namely, Los Angeles’ run through the Western Conference. Pau wants to talk about his touches. Go ahead, brah:
“It kind of came up every series to be honest with you. It came up a little bit in the Utah series but we did well and we were winning, so it was cool. It came up in the Houston series, and when we had those big games, Games 5 and 7, we did go to the post more and it worked out and we won well. Then it happened in the Denver series. Again it worked out, it went well. Hopefully it will continue.
“It’s just got to be a part of our offense and emphasis, a conscious effort that this works, okay, let’s make it work a little more often, because it’s given us a good plus out there. I’m ready always to be there and compete and deliver, so that’s what I like to do.”
Those series’ saw Kobe shoot a ton, as well, often without offering an efficient result. And even as an impartial observer who could give a rip as to who emerged the winner, I was still absolutely losing it while watching because the Lakers ignored Pau so much. I want to see basketball at its best. The Lakers, while ignoring their offense and their 7-footer, weren’t giving to me. Anger results. Things are muttered. Behind the Box Scores are fashioned.
Something seems different in this series, though. Gasol needs the ball more, make no mistake. He needs touches, and he needs shots. The Laker offense is just (if not more) potent in his hands as it is in Kobe Bryant’s hands (shooting 46 percent from the floor, 35 percent from behind the arc) at this point. Idolize all you want, but with Kobe’s age and the way the Laker offense is set up, they’re on par.
That said, the Lakers scored about 121 points per 100 possessions on Tuesday, well over their regular season mark, and an even better mark than what we saw in the team’s Game 1 blowout win (about 115 per 100). Jordan Farmar’s(notes) hot hand and Lamar Odom’s(notes) decisive moves in the low post (adding to the overall score) shouldn’t excuse Gasol’s inexcusable two shot attempts (making both) in the fourth quarter, but it is safe to say that offense wasn’t the Lakers’ problem.
And unlike the head-banging times of April and May, when it seemed Kobe Bryant preferred Mike Brown’s pathetic 1-on-5 offense to Tex Winter’s triple-post, I don’t get the feeling that the Lakers are acting too stubbornly.
Kobe took one awful three-pointer in the fourth quarter of Game 3, his huge turnover turned the tide, and he missed a crucial free throw. Not great. But when you take away the two three-pointers he had to chuck desperately in the final minute, the man shot 2-3 in the fourth quarter with two assists.
That sounds to me like he made one dunderheaded move (the three-pointer) followed by two possessions that just didn’t go his way (the free throw split; the turnover), surrounded by a quarter that wasn’t much different from Pau’s (2-2, six points, one turnover, no assists). Gasol’s human, just as Kobe, and he has just as much chance at going 2-2 from the floor for six points had Kobe given the ball up to Gasol, as he had pulling a Kobe in those three possessions (bad shot, free throw split, turnover).
Gasol needs the ball. He needs the ability to match Kobe’s fourth quarter assist total, if not double it. But even with Kobe messing up a few times and nobody hitting a last-second three to jack up the score, the Lakers still scored 29 points in the fourth quarter against the NBA’s best defense, and whittled a nine-point deficit down to a two-point game at times.
And unlike the team’s turn in the Western Conference bracket, I don’t get the feeling that this is a team that’s unaware of Gasol’s abilities. It just seemed like the decision to go elsewhere just happened to go away from Gasol — happened to, I mean that — time and time again in a quarter that saw the Lakers shoot 11-19 from the field even with a flurry of desperation threes missing in the final minute.
And I expect things to change, in Game 4. Even if it means Gasol gets just as many shots, in the end. Even if it means he “only” finishes with one assist again. He’ll get the ball more, but understand that it won’t always result in the obvious, stat-padding, play.
Take us home, big man.
“[My play in the post] also gives us motion in our offense, and it gives us energy and flow. So it’s something that has worked for us, and I’m a good passer, I feel comfortable passing the ball, I’m a willing passer and I want to get my teammates shots and layâups. It’s fine with me, obviously. Like I said, I’m all about winning, I’m all about being effective and contributing, and that’s what I’m going to do.”
This ain’t no Houston, this ain’t no Denver. This ain’t no fooling around.