Pau Gasol shines in Lakers debut against Nets

For once this season, Kobe Bryant didn’t stand out as the lead point-scorer for the Lakers. That role was taken over quite elegantly by the team’s newest edition - Pau Gasol, a 7-foot-tall guard that the Lakers acquired last Friday from the Memphis Grizzlies debuted Tuesday with his new team and contributed 16 points toward the Lakers’ 105-90 victory over the New Jersey Nets at the Phillips Arena.

“I’m starting to realize how big the Lakers are around the country and around the world,” Gasol said before the game, according to an interview with the Kansas City Star posted Tuesday, Feb. 5 on the publication’s official Web site.

The Lakers also had help from Derek Fisher, who threw in 28 points, advancing the team to 3-1 so far on their nine-game road trip and helping improve its season 31-16. Bryant, who had his lowest-scoring game since the Lakers played Denver in early January, shot three for 13 and had eight assists. Critics have ventured a guess that Gasol will be a favored and successful starting replacement for Andrew Bynum who is out with a knee injury. It also appeared that Bryant and the rest of the starting line up was working well with the extra tall guard on Tuesday night, despite only having participated in one practice and one shoot around with the team, according to the Kansas City Star report.

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