Monday, June 14th, 2010 at 11:34 am  |  149 responses

Pau Gasol Faltering Under Pressure?

by Tzvi Twersky

Two games into the 2010 NBA Finals, Pau Gasol was almost there.

Coming off a 23 and 14 performance in Game 1 and a 25 and 8 in Game 2, he was almost at the point where the labels “soft” and “not clutch” were inaccurate (and maybe they still are). But then last night’s Game 5 happened–with two minutes left in the third quater, Pau had scored a silent two points; he finished with 12–and the doubts resurfaced.

Is Pau Gasol a big-time player?

Kevin Ding weighs in:

That’s because Pau Gasol, for all his sweet skills and how pivotal he has been to the Lakers’ greatness these past three years, has been passive, indecisive and – yes – soft when the pressure is on, the footing is unfamiliar and the faces are even more so.

Gasol faltered yet again Sunday night on the road and in the clutch, pushing the Lakers to a 3-2 NBA Finals deficit.

It was the same old spiel from Gasol afterward, reminding himself to “be the aggressor” the next game. He said his plan for Game 6 is to be “very, very aggressive, very confident, and understand the situation we’re at now.”

And there is a great possibility Gasol does redouble his efforts and push himself into those tight spaces and dark places he doesn’t just go by nature. He’s that smart and self-aware that he can do that, so maybe in the long-term future he can fix what has been wrong in his past, too.

…

It’s not easy to be great with the pressure on and the fans against you. It doesn’t mean Gasol is not a true All-Star. It’s not that he can’t play on the road, either: He averaged exactly 18.3 points home and away this season, shooting 54 percent home and 53 percent away.

It just takes a little extra grit and spit to come through against such extreme adversity.

And even though he’s a champion now, these are days when you have to remember that Gasol never won a playoff game before joining Bryant.

Not a playoff series, but a single playoff game. Gasol went 0-12.

Though they’re down 3-2 in the series, and though he’s once again “soft”, it’s not over just yet for the Los Angeles Lakers or Pau Gasol.

They–he–have one, maybe two more chances to show what they’re made of.

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  • http://www.realcavsfans.com Anton
  • SKD

    Kobe’s 2004 Finals…22.6 ppg on 38% shooting 4 for 23 from 3 point, 4 assists and 3 rebound per game. Meanwhile Shaq goes for 27 and 11 on 63% shooting and got 30 less shots than Kobe
    Kobe: Game 5 2004 Finals….7 for 21, Game 4….8 for 25, Game 3….4 for 13
    Shaq: Game 5 2004 Finals….7 for 13, Game 4….16 for 21…..36 points, 20 rebs, Game 3….7 for 14

    Kobe would rather let everyone know he is the best player on the team, than win the game. Even if the better option is to go inside with the ball, Kobe will take the vast majority of the shots and they will win or lose with that.
    You keep saying MJ played with Pippen, yeah Kobe played with SHAQ!!! MJ never lost in the Finals because he didnt let his ego of showing everyone how good he is get in the way of the TEAM winning games. Period. And before the Lakers got Gasol, Kobe couldnt get out of the first round. Now they have played in three straight Finals. So get that bulls**t out of here.

  • SKD

    Kobe isnt even the second best SG. Thats Oscar Robertson.

  • andre anglais

    Thank you allenP, you put it very well. Now, about Pau and his softness…

  • The Philosopher

    @Bryan: At least you know AND understand that Michael was better… but the margin is far wider than many think. MANY.

  • SKD

    Its not even close to being close. Kobe has one of the lowest basketball IQ’s ive seen for a player that talented. He has never even sniffed 50% shooting, something LeBron does regularly. Thats all neck up.

  • The Philosopher

    SKD JUST SHUT THIS THREAD DOWN!!!!

  • The Philosopher

    ^^^when talking about how Michael’s better.^^^

  • nastierthanu

    U know what I love about slam. Whatever the post was doesn’t matter the comments take on a life of their own. Pau is a finesse guy. He’s not a bruising pivot so yeah he’s a little soft. So what he’s effective and that’s what counts. His effort was fine in games 1 and 2. The mistake he made was calling kg just a jump shooter. Anybody remember that. He ran his mouth and now kg is long gone from david banner.

  • http://www.triplejunearthed.com/dacre Dacre

    So, I’ve read every post in order to get a handle on the general vibe of the finals and everyones opinions so far. Bare in mind I haven’t watched a single game per say – just NBA.COM analysis etc:
    ——————————————————-
    * Eboy has enjoyed the series albeit the Laker fans have him so infuriated that his posts look more like fury-inducing erotic novels.
    * allenP has been trying to remind every young basketball fan watching the modern games that everything Kobe has done to date with his career has been in DIRECT tuition of a game/coach and offense molded around the first GOAT SG. Air. And kids he is spot on…
    * DOES IT REALLY SURPRISE ANYONE THAT PAU HAS ‘DISAPPEARED’?? And add to that, that Kobe has felt he has had to ‘take over?’ That plays right into the Celtic game plan. This my friends is the result of a dynamic, changing defense making the necessary adjustments required to shut down skilled players and get a team to move away from their comfort zone on offense. They did the same thing to Orlando last round and this their entire mode of operation every day. Day in day out. It’s chess. YOUR MOVE LA.
    * I have questions….. Ron Artest? Bench production? Where’s Phils adjustments?

  • The Philosopher

    At least Dacre ALSO knows that Michael was better than Kobe.

  • http://www.stuffwhitepeoplelike.com Tarzan Cooper

    Holy skeet skd, I forgot oscar. Kobe is 4th best sg of all time. And 04 is the clearest example ever that lal was shaqs team, 40 20 shaq! Theres reasons why he got finals mvps, those 04 numbers are insane, thanks skd

  • Ronald

    Oscar Robertson ahead of Kobe? Seriously? Now you’re just looking at stats. Dude was a bigger pouter than Kobe ever was!

  • Ronald

    And c’mon. Pau not playing well is not being “soft” or “disappearing.” Give Perk some credit. Dude is playing him well. The C’s made good adjustments against Pau and that’s it. If Pau is soft than so is KG (for having brain farts in game1 and 2) and PP (for not showing up until game 5). Soft is used to describe either weak mental acuity i.e Choking or physical softness. Pau hasn’t “choked” yet and he’s not the one that writhes all over the floor during a foul and it’s like the C’s are allowing him to prance inside the paint at will. Now Lamar Odom on the other hand…

  • Ronald

    And Phil, stop trolling! You bring MJ up even in a Pau article?

  • The Philosopher

    Ronald: My bad…

  • Ronald

    Yup, Lebron James shoots at 47.5% for his career. And Kobe shoots at 45.5% (Which was much higher than I expected.) Lebron shoots 20.8 shots a game for his career and makes 9.9 shots a game. Kobe shoots 19.3 shots a game and makes 8.8 shots a game. So, despite Lebron sniffing 50% for his career he makes less than an extra shot a game than Kobe on the same attempts. So, Lebron doesn’t score THAT much more effectively than Kobe. Heck, Kobe is a 84% ft shooter and Lebron is a 73% ft shooter. So, let’s not downplay how well Kobe can score just because on paper Lebron can sniff 50 better. Jordan on the other hand was ridiculous. At 49% at 23 shots a game.

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    Tarzan, Big O was a point guard.

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    Jordan’s percentages are better because he didn’t take as many 3′s as Kobe does. Kobe jacks it up from anywhere; Jordan liked to jack it up midrange.

  • http://Slam leroylaker

    @ chinas

    Everytime they did dump the ball into Gasol, he wimped up. He goes up weakly and gets his shots blocked, he drops the ball and it gets stolen, he falls down, he trips over his own feet and everytime he misses a shot, rather than hustling back on defense, he stands there hands out to the refs whining about no call. So, why should they dump the ball into him? And, there is absolutely NO comparison between Kobe and Pau. Kobe’s the best player on the planet, and Pau ranks rather close to the middle of the pack. As Mr Ding said in the OC Register, “Before Pau got on Kobe’s team, he had NEVER WON A PLAYOFF GAME – NOT A SERIES – BUT EVEN A SINGLE GAME!!! HE”S 0-12″

  • http://myspace.com/weezyleezy337 GametimeWeezy

    okay here we go….comparing to is like Jordan to Kobe is like comparing Biggie to Jay-Z…Jiggas the man but there is only one Greatest Player EVER. Kobe is like hip hop today…yea its iight and its all good. SOME CLASSICS. Jordan and his 6 rings winning EVERY CHAMPIONSHIP GAME HE EVER PLAYED including at UNC and Olyimpics….nuff effinsaid. HE WON ALL THE BIG GAMES…with help from PIP.

  • http://thetroyblog.com Teddy-the-Bear

    Jay-Z is not the best rapper ever, not even close… He’s not the best rapper today, and he sure wasn’t the best rapper in the 90′s. Sorry Gametime, that’s just how I feel.

  • http://myspace.com/weezyleezy337 GametimeWeezy

    But Kobe might win this one if Pau Gasol dont play like a roodie poo. On da real it dont even matter cuz Gasol gets his. Garnett da God has to do him and every game Rasheed hits a 3 pointer…they winnin by 10. Big Baby off the bench playin bug to off set Lamar doin his thing and Artest not showing up latery either.

  • http://myspace.com/weezyleezy337 GametimeWeezy

    Hell naw i was comparing Jay Z to Kobe. Biggie n Jordan greatest ever…forever

  • http://fklf.com Jukai

    A few things to clear up, which seems pointless because, you know, no one will respond since this will disappear tomorrow:
    1) Allenp is wrong. The difference between Jordan and Kobe is pretty vast. I’m sorry, but I’m wondering if Allen ever really watched Jordan play. They were the same mentally? Jordan never whined as much as Kobe. Jordan NEVER took things for granted as Kobe does. Jordan battled through punches and knees and hard fouls that Kobe could never imagine…. Kobe plows into Ray Allen and whines about the foul call. There is a vast difference between Kobe and Michael mentally. If you’re going to tell me Mike was the same, you’re lying through your teeth.
    And I’m not even talking about the difference between Kobe/Jordan athletically and naturally. Jordan was faster, stronger, had better court vision (leading to greater assists and getting his teammates involved more), and was a better defender due to those same physical advantages (greater leaping ability and speed make Jordan grab more steals, block more shots, and get more rebounds). Kobe has better footwork and shot mechanics, but that can only help him on offense, where Jordan was a practical monster. I’m sorry, but I feel the same people who say “you don’t remember Kobe at his physical prime” are those same people who remember Jordan in the mid-90s and not Jordan in the late 80s. He was an unstoppable juggernaut. He could get down the court in three seconds, jump higher than a bird, and out-position any guard he ever went up against.
    The difference between Jordan and Kobe was originally overstated, but recently it’s been quite understated.
    2) For that matter, Jerry West is third. Where was this thing that the dude was unathletic? He had pretty crazy hops, reportedly jumping 16 inches above the rim… and he was able to get his jumpshot off over the majority of his opponents because he could just outspeed them. I remember watching an old documentary on Bill Bradley, and it showed game footage of a game when he went up against Jerry West… dude was outrunning the entire Knicks team. West was probably in his 30s. Crazy.
    3) After West, I’d say Drexler, Gerving, Iverson, Wade, Reggie Miller, Ray Allen, and Pete Maravich. Probably when it is all said and done, Wade and Allen will have gone up a few spots… Tempted to put Manu Ginobili or Sidney Moncrief in Maravich’s spot. Dude was skilled, but he really doesn’t have the resume.
    4) Big O gets a huge pass for being a huge d-bag. He was really, really respected for his day, but he treated his teammates like crap. Read up on it before you put Big O over Kobe in an all-time list.
    Teddy: Uh, how does your statement about Kobe jacking up more threes make up for Kobe’s lower shooting percentages?

  • http://Www.lkz.cn Darksaber

    The Jukester’s Jordan summary had me nodding vigorously. Way to state the points for those here with selective memories and Kobetitis.

  • Ronald

    @Jukai:Your argumet is sound and solid but imho I think Allenp’s response was mainly to the following crap:-
    1) Jordan was classy. For some reason I keep reading and I think that’s what Allenp read too I think, is that Jordan was a nice gentleman who played fair and was nice to his peers. Supposedly he learned this from his fellow colleagues or some crap or rather. I think that Giggolo guy wrote that. This is crap as we all know MJ was a d-bag and was similar to Kobe that a lot people loved him yet a lot of people hated him. But it was hard not to respect him.
    2) Kobe is a pure chucker and a ball hog and MJ was always a team player. As Allenp said, in more than one occasion MJ froze his teammates in a childish manner. And at all times MJ shot WAY more than everyone else on the team. This is evident by the number of shots he took a season and how Kobe hasn’t even remotely shot the same number. Did Jordan pick his spots better? Yeah, definitely, can’t deny this seeing how Jordan won 6 rings and Kobe only 4. Therefore MJ’s method was better than Kobe’s. At the end winning is the name of the game and Jordan won more than Kobe. Also, stastically, Teddy is right. Kobe shot 19 shots a game with 4 threes a game. Jordan shot 23 shots a game with 1 three a game. If we remove Kobe’s threes and made him shoot the same number of shots at the same rate then his shooting percentage would be much closer to 50 than it actually is. I hope that part made sense.

  • Knick94

    Pete Maravich was better than Kobe(skills). MJ was a Small Forward. Kids stop discussing individuals all the time. Kobe always gets humiliated when facing a strong, defensive team. He cannot conquer that Island (not enough troops, no strategy-foolish I want to be the hero/martyr approach).
    Pistons 2004, Celtics 2008/2010 just broke his teams. These Celtics are one of the great defensive and deep teams in BBall history. 5 Hall of Famers. 5 brawlers. Amazing skills, passion, never-die mentality…the psychological edge! How can you not love this team? Lakers/Kobelovers you need to jump the sinking ship. It’s over. Again!

  • http://www.slamonline.com J

    mj was a small forwrd? lmao

  • Sari Vinceno

    Yo back to the real topic…… 2K11 or Live 11 need to have a f**kin create your own association mode….. you feel me? Create jerseys. Pick City. Build arena. Have an expansion draft. That sh*t would be ill. Holla if you feel it.

    Sari

  • larrylegend

    127 comments so far…hey, this is not Dirk, folks :-)

  • Knick94

    Study the game son. Who did MJ try to be like? Dr. J. What was his built, his skills-set? Who are the players that resemble his style? He did develop a reliable jump-shot during his career, but there is a huge difference between him and classic 2′s like West, Maravich, Ainge, Scott, RMiller, RAllen…Just because everyone calls him a SG, doesn’t make him a 2. He was more a 3 with elements of a 1 and 2 mixed in there.
    Anyway, he was like Kobe one of the best individual players of his time, but got his ass kicked by great Celtics and Pistons teams.

  • http://fklf.com Jukai

    Ronald: I agree mainly with those two points, yeah. Jordan was a d-bag on the court. He punched Kerr and someone else in the face during practice. Two fantastic stories that summarize what a jerkoff Jordan was:
    1- Jordan could not accept losing to Worthy in games of one-on-one. He continually challenged his 4-year older college teammate to matches one time, winning some but losing most… and he kept saying “best out of three… okay out of five… okay seven…” until Worthy finally said “Look, enough dude. I wanna have a life outside of here!”
    2 – Pippen decided to talk some playful trash to Jordan before an in-team scrimmage. Jordan decided to go 120% on Pippen and entirely crush him, and did so, to the point where Pippen had to pull Jordan aside and tell him to slow down.
    But, there are some key differences….
    1 – The above mentioned “not taking things for granted” Jordan. Sure, Jordan went to the foul line if you breathed on him… and yeah, he did his fair share of nagging to the refs. But Jordan never pulled some of the stuff Kobe does on an AVERAGE BASIS to the refs, screaming and cursing and flailing his arms. I’ve seen Kobe stop during plays to yell at the ref. If Jordan did that once or twice, it’s been erased from the crevices of my mind, cause I don’t ever remember seeing him do that.
    2 – Jordan would never say crap like “I shouldn’t have to talk to my teammates. If they can’t step up, they don’t deserve a championship.” Jordan treated his teammates, at times, like crap… but he’d never make a statement like that. Pippen certainly was more of the therapist/glue guy, but Jordan plenty of times went over to a struggling player to give him tips and try to get their butt in gear for the next game. “Kobe gets the best out of his teammates. Jordan makes his teammates better.” That’s (c) Justin Walsh right there!
    And yeah, Jordan was a chucker. I mean, I’m not even gonna argue with that. He was. He shot a higher percentage and created more than Kobe did… so it made it less evident. But he was a chucker. Jordan never saw a shot he didn’t like.

  • http://fklf.com Jukai

    Knick94: Your logic doesn’t really hold too well.
    Jordan did try and model his game after Dr. J, to an extent…. but he tried to model his game far more towards David Thompson, who is widely considered a shooting guard.
    A shooting guard who played eerily similar to Michael Jordan.
    More shooting guards: Allen Iverson, George Gervin, Dwyane Wade, Earl the Perl, Sidney Moncrief, Joe Dumars, Dave Bing, Sam Jones… notice what they all have in common? These guys play a slashing style of basketball and don’t always run through screens and shoot jumpers. Jordan is WAY more of a shooting guard than the previous guys mentioned: Jordan had a pretty wet midrange coming into the L, but he augmented it with stepbacks, fadeaways, off-balance learners, runners in the paint… Jordan was so athletic, fundamental, and skilled that he didn’t need to mindlessly run through screens like your aforementioned group of “true shooting guards” to get distance between himself and his defender to shoot. This doesn’t suddenly make him a small-forward. It makes him a shooting guard with aspects of a three.
    I mean, Dwight Howard can’t post. Is Dwight actually a four?!?!?!

  • http://fklf.com Jukai

    I’m not even touching your “Maravich is more skilled than Kobe.” Even if it was true offensively (it’s not), basketball is played at both sides of the court. Maravich only played half of basketball.

  • http://www.slamonline.com J

    knick94: i know my game.. DAD! his built? 6-6, 216, i think that’s a SG’s built in any era maybe except 50′s-70′s. a regular SG’s height range between 6-4 to 6-7.. kobe is 6-6 220, gervin is 6-7, west is 6-2! is he a point guard? yep there’s a HUGE difference between him and other conventional 2′s cause he didnt just redefined it he took it on a level where no one could. but that doesnt mean he’s not a two! he set a new definition of a “two”. think of the word shooting guard lets see who’s gonna pop up on your mind? don’t say ainge i know your lying… who was he trying to be like? (see Jukai’s 3:54). he’s a 2 with elements of 1 and 3,.

  • G

    This is what the say about any big man who has a bad game they say hes soft he not soft but he aint tough soft is for people who flop

  • nastierthanu

    To all. Let’s be honest. If u even have to think about the answer to this than u are biased. If kobe had dwight howards personality would he be that far away from jordan. I think people are picking at straws because they don’t like the guy period

  • Harlem_World

    Forget the Kobe/Jordan debate – that’s dead for anyone who understands the game. I’m hearing more and more that Kobe is ‘the best Laker of all time’ which is almost even more absurd than the Jordan debate. Magic Johnson was a better winner and a better basketball player than Kobe Bryant. Period. Saying he is a better Laker than Kareem (all-time) might be saying more than you should too.

  • larrylegend

    how about the foul from kobe against truth? this was a dirty play, not a hard playoff foul. kobe tries to hurt and punch people!!! i h8 snakes!

  • larrylegend

    *if he’s pissed off.

  • LOAF

    wow and i thought there were a 100+ comments about Gasol, guess not….

  • tom

    to me kobe is higher ranked in most minds because of growing media possibilites and hype. he is a very good basketball player with unbelievable abilities, but he´s not as good as a team player as others, nash or wade for example. lebron seems to be a very good mixture of both.

    it´s not possible to compare players out of their generation exactly. this counts for a lot of aspects, like stats, media, rules and marketing.

  • giogolo

    greats point here everyone. at least I agree MJ as no saint, but he’s a cut above Kobe overall as a basketball payer in their respective careers.Period. Jordan brought it to everyone, offense and defense,teammates and opponents alike and showed them that if you wanna win in the NBA you got to lead and show it the right way. Though his competitiveness bordered to the excessive.
    MJ > Dwade > KObe. and you can all hate me for that. Lebron. no way he comes close to these 3 with his kind of attitude. So with Dwight adn sometimes Melo.

  • The Philosopher

    Shout out @Jukai.

  • T-Money

    Spot on Jukai. I’d disagree with one thing: Jordan was a volume shooter but not a chucker and saw plenty of shots “he didn’t like”. He was very methodical in the kind of shots he wanted to take and where from the floor he wanted to take them. Then he would proceed to take a million of those type of shots from those spots. To me, there’s a nuance there.

  • loteq

    Kevin Ding is pathetic, he calls himself an analyst but he’s a joke. Better read Kelly Dwyer

    http://sports.yahoo.com/nba/blog/ball_dont_lie/post/Five-ways-for-the-Lakers-to-win-it-all-again?urn=nba,248538

    and

    Matt Moore from Hardwood Paroxysm

    http://www.hardwoodparoxysm.com/2010/06/14/nba-finals-lakers-celtics-game-5-you-have-run-out-of-extra-lives-laker-cat/

    For the obvious reasons why the Game 5 was lost.

    I can’t believe this guy, they actually get paid for this kind of knee jerk stupid reactions.

  • http://fklf.com Jukai

    T-Money: I think yer thinking of Jordan post-basketball. That’s where he came back and REALLY became all “I’m going to pick my spots and kill you methodically instead of through the entire game.”
    Before hand, he would take shots that really weren’t as smart as people make them out to be. You may be right that he KNEW where he wanted to shoot… certainly, Jordan had his spots, unlike Kobe. But I don’t know if knowing you’re going to take a running leaner 75 degrees from the basket if you can blow past your guy makes you a volume shooter and not a chucker. Or maybe it does? I really never thought of the difference.

  • giogolo

    JUkai
    only an NBA basketball player would know that difference or the reason.

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