NBA Finals Game 2: Is Pau Gasol Out of His Mind?

If you want to beat the Celtics and win the NBA Championship, you don’t go giving them bulletin board material. It doesn’t matter what question a reporter asks. In the NBA and the NFL, you don’t let a reporter goad you into creating bulletin board quotes for your opponents.

This is not MMA. This is not the UFC. Gaining any kind of momentum and having an advantage, no matter how slight, over an opponent in the NBA and the NFL is of the utmost importance.

After gaining the upper hand in Game 1 of their NBA Finals matchup with the Celtics, the Lakers certainly didn’t expect to have the tables turned on them even before Game 2, and by one of their star players no less.

Pau Gasol not only gave the Celtics and Kevin Garnett bulletin board material, he gave them billboard-sized material.

When asked how much Kevin Garnett’s game has changed over the years, here is what Pau Gasol had to say:

"On Kevin's part, he's lost a little of his explosiveness. He's more of a jump shooter now, you could say, comes off the lane. Before, he had a really, really quick first step and was getting to the lane and was more aggressive then. Time passes and we all suffer it one way or another, but he is still a terrific player, a terrific competitor and he's going to bring everything he's got. You can count on that."

Just great, Pau. Who do you think you are, the second coming of Larry Bird? 

You must have taken leave of your senses. I might have expected something like that from Ron Artest, who can get a little crazy at times. But even Artest has enough common sense not to insult an opponent who happens to be a future Hall of Famer and one who can turn this series around in just one game.

But Gasol must have been feeling pretty good about himself and being the only player with a double-double in Game 1 to come out and say that Kevin Garnett has lost some of h...

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