Pau Gasol Triumphant; Helps Bulls Beat Lakers on Christmas Day

Alright, welcome to a Christmas special full recap of the Lakers’ Christmas Day matchup with the Chicago Bulls as the Lakers, kept it close for the most part, but they started gassing out while the Bulls started turning it on as Pau Gasol stuck it to his former team to lead the Bulls to a 93-113 victory in Chicago.

First off as usual, Laker Nation, Raider Nation, Merry Christmas! I hope you guys are enjoying a wonderful time with your families, near or far in the greatest time of the year and I hoped you guys enjoyed kicking it back and watching a set of good NBA games. As for this game though, it’s been a tough sled for us Laker fans in Christmas games. After this game, the Lakers have officially lost 4 of their last 5 games on Christmas Day. It’s just tough luck, but they ran into a very tough team in the Eastern Conference. A healthy Derrick Rose, the size of Gasol and Noah, and the Bulls’ stalwart defense was just too much for the Kobe Bryant-less Lakers. Especially, Gasol, I'm sure he was motivated to battle his former team and delivered a performance we miss so much from him when he donned the purple and gold as he racked up a double-double of 23 points and 13 rebounds. Let's get right to the game.

The Positives

Ed Davis, 13 points. 14 rebounds, 3 blocks. Ed Davis did a surprisingly masterful job against Joakim Noah down low in the post defensively. If Noah got going with the way Gasol played, the Bulls’ margin of victory would’ve been much larger. The pick and roll game with Davis was still there, he managed to get some looks in the paint. Despite the large rebounding disparity between Davis now and Noah and Gasol, Davis managed to hold offensively and defensively it boxing out and giving the Lakers possession or 2nd chance opportunity. Keep in mind, he outrebounded both of them 9-7 in the 1st half of the game alone.

Wesley Johnson, 19 points, 9 rebounds, 2 steals. The top scorer for the Lakers, Wes’s shooting efficiency still needs a lot of work. However, he provided with much needed buckets for the Lakers to keep it close, despite the Bulls pulling it out all the way once the 4th quarter was under way.

Carlos Boozer, 14 points, 7-11 shooting. The return to Chicago, Boozer didn’t quite have an impactful game that he needed to ensure the Bulls missed his presence on the team, but Nick Young was put on ice this game, Lin didn’t have an efficient, who’s going to be the one to step it up? Boozer answered that bell and provided the scoring off the bench and needed shots for the Lakers to be within striking distance for the most part of the game. Not sure if Bulls fans were chanting “boo” or “Booze” when he was making some of his baskets, but more likely “boos” because I know Bulls fans didn’t like his production considering he would go on a slump in games.

The Negatives

Nick Young, 3 points, 1-6 shooting. He was bound to have some of these games and not live up to his “Swaggy P” nickname. Like I said before, the Bulls defense put him on ice for the majority of the game and it benefitted big time. After his first field goal, Nick Young never heard a splash from his shot ever again. The Bulls game planned for Kobe Bryant, but they took that gameplan and picked on poor little Nick Young.

Jordan Hill’s jump shot. After the Clippers game back in October where Jordan Hill can from outside of the key, I was thinking “man he improved a lot on that shot.” Then after that, it started slipping away from him. Chris Webber said it best tonight. Hill should come back in the summer and hit 500 jump shots a day or something like that. Credit to the Bulls size, Hill was wise enough not to revert to his game in the post and try beating him with his jump shot, but it didn’t happen. He had a nice highlight where he got blocked by Noah and he got it again and manage to sink it in his face. Overall, Hill had a decent game, just that his jump shot wasn’t so great.

Conclusion

When everybody said the Lakers were better without Kobe, I was like “slow down, this team tends to regress the next game after beating a good team like the Warriors the previous game.” It wasn’t that type of regression this game. Sure they started slow, but they took baby steps to get right back into this, but too many baby steps will surely leave someone far behind and the Lakers took too many baby steps this game. The Bulls exploited that and at the end, they showed why they pose the biggest threat to teams like Toronto and Washington. Anyway, the Lakers can’t hang their heads down over this. They have a back-to-back game tomorrow facing off against the new look Mavericks since they made the trade to get Rajon Rondo. Well, this is the last Q-by-Q, Halftime, and Full Recap posts for Lakers basketball for the year. I’ll see you guys in January. I’m going to wrap up everything for this year after the Raiders-Broncos game, so stay tuned for that. Anyway, Merry Christmas guys and I’ll see you guys later.

12/25: Christmas Day Matchup LAKERS @ Chicago Bulls Q-by-Q Reaction

Q4:

Score: LAL 93 CHI 113

Well, it was only a matter of time the Bulls were going to start dominating in crunch time. In the 3rd quarter, they've started to manhandle the Lakers in the paint and this quarter, the three ball started going in and the defensive activity of that team just got its switch flipped. In his first game out of a Lakers uniform, Pau Gasol got his former team big time. Good show of respect from Pau to walk over to Kobe and share a little embrace, but he did what needs to be done and get his new team a W. Stay tuned for the full recap.

Q3:

Score: LAL 77 CHI 83

I did say the Lakers were gonna have to pick it up offensively at some point and they did. First cutting the lead to four, then to two, then four again, now they just gotta find a way to try and capture the lead. However, the Bulls' size definitely hurt the Lakers this quarter. Pau Gasol has found the touch, scoring and rebounding and boy do we miss that in Laker land. Nonetheless, still a six point game and the Lakers are still hanging in there.

Q2:

Score: LAL 47 CHI 58

It would've been better if the Lakers just cut it to a single digit, but we'll live with that Jimmy Butler shot to end the quarter. Other than that, aside from the fact that the Bulls outperform the Lakers in the field goal department, the Lakers have done a good job responding. At first, the Bulls were up 38-52, looks like it's they're going to pull away, but the Lakers just keep scratching and clawing to make the Bulls' lead a lot more manageable. Onto the halftime report.

Q1:

Score: LAL 24 CHI 27

Great follow up from Wayne Ellington after a missed shot to end the quarter. So, the Lakers are playing without Kobe Bryant again and unlike the Warriors game, they were off to a slow start. Derrick Rose was hot early on till he started missing his next two shots, then Pau started to pick it up, but the Lakers keep fighting and managed to climb back to cut the Bulls' lead to three. So far, Gasol is getting the best of the Lakers while Boozer just came in and just only attempted one field goal against his former team in his return to Chicago.

LAKERS @ Bulls Halftime Post

Score: LAL 47 CHI 58

Alright welcome in to the halftime post of the Lakers' Christmas Day matchup with Pau Gasol and the Chicago Bulls where the Bulls have the upper hand with a 47-58 lead at the break

The Positives

Ed Davis, 8 points, 9 rebounds, 1 block. Ed Davis is a rebounding machine. I think I may have to relinquish Jordan Hill's nickname of Mr. All-Out Hustle to Davis now because that's what he's been doing. He's managing to hold his own down low against the size of Gasol and Joakim Noah, he's out-rebounded both of them by two, Noah and Gasol just combined for 7 rebounds.

Ronnie Price, 7 points, 3-4 shooting. Like I said in the Warriors' game, Price is mostly known for his scrappy defense, but not so much for his offense, but this is the second game in a row that he's had an efficient night scoring and shooting the ball. He's following it up quite well, picking up the offensive slack and moving the ball when needed.

The Negatives

Nick Young, 3 points, 1-3 shooting. Is this the first time Swaggy P has been held to a single digit game by halftime? It's a testament to the Bulls' defense because they were planning for Kobe Bryant and when they found out he was not playing, they shifted that defensive gameplan to Nick Young and they're letting him have it.

Bench play. It's not just Nick Young who's had a off game currently, but the bench as a whole. Lin managed just 2 points on 1-5 shooting. Only Carlos Boozer seems to be shooting the ball well on the 3-5 field goals, but hasn't picked up the scoring and rebounding. Compared to the Bulls bench, the Laker bench is being outscored at a close margin 18-13.

Bottom Line

Slow start to begin with for the Lakers, but they are picking it up steadily. Now, the offense has got to pick up and hey have to start playing defensively like they did against the Warriors. The only catch is, they have to contain the Bulls' 2 bigs, but they've done a good job of that so far, allowing only Gasol to put up double figure points. Let's see what happens.