The Lakers’ Spanish
star usually tries to avoid the spotlight, but he was unable to withhold
himself following Sunday's loss to Indiana.
He had become
increasingly frustrated with his role in coach Mike Brown's offense,
usually getting the ball farther away from the basket than he was used
to in the triangle offense of Phil Jackson. But he hadn't said much
until a former Lakers coach went public with his thoughts.
Pacers
associate head coach Brian Shaw, who served on Jackson’s staff, said
Gasol looked uncomfortable with his offensive positioning and it seemed
to be hampering his production. Gasol acknowledged that Shaw was right,
questioning why the team wasn't taking advantage of his and fellow
7-footer Andrew Bynum's presence in the low post.
Brown dismissed
the complaints publicly, but a major part of Wednesday's game plan was
to get the ball down low. It was out of character, but Gasol’s "squeaky
wheel gets the grease" approach resulted in him having the ball in his
hands all game long.
"It worked out for me, yes," he said after
scoring 23 points with 10 rebounds in the 96-91 win. "I definitely
appreciated it. I want to be more aggressive and I want to be more
effective. I wanted to get myself going early and it worked out well.
"Hopefully
we'll get some more continuity (in our offense) and I'll continue to be
as aggressive as I was tonight. I may not shoot 9 for 13 every night,
but at least I will try to get into the lane more and force things a
little bit."
Gasol apparently was more forceful than he intended
to be. When he rubbed Chris Paul’s head at the end of the game — what
Gasol said was a friendly "good game" type of gesture — the Clippers
star took exception to it, doing his best Adrian Beltre impersonation
and yelling at Gasol to never touch his head again. He then reached up
and grabbed Gasol's scalp before cooler heads prevailed and prevented a
potentially ugly scene — though Gasol gave Paul a parting bump, pointing
at him and talking some trash as he walked off the court.
"It was
as if he was treating me like a little kid, like a baby," a
still-steamed Paul said to reporters after the game. "That's why I
grabbed his head; I was treating him like my (son)."
A much calmer Gasol said Paul misinterpreted his actions.
"I'm
sorry he felt that way," Gasol said with a bit of a gleam in his eyes.
"I do that all the time with my teammates. There was nothing mean about
it. It was nothing personal with me."
What was more personal was
the beating Gasol took from the Clippers' front line and the forearm
smashes he gave in return. Standing at his locker, he had five or six
long scratches on the left side of his neck and some red marks below
them. Just basketball, he said.
"It was a physical game, no
doubt," he said. "I'm not much of a talker out there on the floor; I'm
usually pretty quiet. But when things get (chippy) you have to give it
right back. That's what we all did."
Another struggling Laker also seemed to turn a corner.
Metta
World Peace came to camp out of shape and had a hard time playing to
the level expected of the team's sixth man. He soon lost that job and
even sat out a game earlier this month. There already was talk that
World Peace would be the player the Lakers dump with their amnesty
clause after the season. Wednesday night may have put that speculation
on hold for a while.
World Peace took the night off and Ron
Artest showed up. He scored just one basket, a clutch 3-pointer for an
87-82 lead, but he was brilliant defensively and had seven assists and
five rebounds.
"Hopefully this is the game that gets him back on
track," said Kobe Bryant, who had a team-high 24 points. "We need everybody
to play at their best consistently, especially a guy who can make a
difference every night like he can. We all did a lot of positive things
out there tonight, but it was really nice to see Metta get it done."
