Fox Sports: Gee, what a fluke: The Lakers spread out, run their offense through Pau Gasol and Lamar Odom and shred the Nuggets defense for countless unchallenged layups and jumpers in Games 5 and 6, many by predator Kobe Bryant who often found himself alone with just one defender to shame then slay.
Kobe is Kong, overpowering, compelling and neurotic. Gasol is L.A.’s centrifugal force minus the celebratory primal screams and beating on the chest. When utilized correctly by Kobe & Co., Pau provides unanswerable peculiarities only Dwight Howard may be able to nullify should they square off in The Finals.
Pau’s rare ’70s-like disposition and cache were the difference in strip-mining the Nuggets — so smooth on his feet ballet-dancing left or right for baby hooks or turnaround springers, so poised peering over the defense before making the proper pass, so pristine from 15 from the line after getting hammered.
Ignoramuses call Gasol soft. Why? Not violent enough? ‘Cuz he doesn’t flex and snort and ‘bo cutters and sideswipe opponents when they’re off balance and grab legs and arms like Kenyon Martin, or trip and push like Denver’s insignificant other henchman Dahntay Jones.
That ain’t hoop. What, they’re hard and Gasol’s soft? After a few games, that stuff turned me off to the Nuggets and stained what they had accomplished.
Continue reading ‘Pau isn’t soft… and it’s time you realize it’
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