Pau Gasol struggled offensively, but he still managed 15 points, 7 rebounds, and 6 assists, so it’s hard to fault him. Some shots that he would usually hit rimmed out, and he struggled a bit with the physicality of the Thunder’s bigs. I’m sure his physical condition has something to do with the latter, and he’ll deal with that challenge easier when he’s back in shape and has the physical endurance to fight back on the block for extended stretches. Still, his impact on the game can only be seen as positive. His passing means so much to this team, but beyond any of that, I can’t describe it any better than to simply say that things seem so easy and effortless for the entire team with Gasol back on the court. It’s impossible to articulate all the ways in which he has this effect on the team, but it’s undeniable.

Lamar Odom and Ron Artest struggled with their shots as well, but they rebounded the ball, played solid defense, and still contributed to a very positive effort overall for the Lakers. Hard to complain. (Speaking of rebounding, it’s worth pointing out that while no Lakers broke double digits, five different players had five or more boards.)

via Bynum Joins the Kobe Show as Lakers Trounce Thunder – Silver Screen and Roll.

Take a good long look at that first paragraph, NBA fans outside of LA/non-bandwagon fans across the country, and despair.

Josh nails this analysis of Gasol which I think we’re just now starting to really understand about the Lakers. We saw it last year, but we didn’t understand it. It was just “Wow, Kobe with someone who gives a damn! Who knew?” But the fact that it looks so easy really rings true. What are you going to do? You can’t clog the lane, they have too much size between he and Bynum. Unless you decide you’re going to give up 7,000 3-second violations, you’re sunk.

You can’t play them straight up, Gasol’s more than capable of hitting one of the fifty shots he has at his disposal. You can’t double, because they have three other-All-Star caliber guys around, and the rotting corpse of Derek Fisher which can still hit threes out of mechanics.

This is a Thunder team that beat LA earlier in the year. And they had no shot last night. NO. SHOT.  LA wasn’t dominant last year, they were just better. We may be looking at dominance now that Gasol’s back.