Pau Gasol: How He Can Help the Los Angeles Lakers Win the NBA Championship

When the Lakers traded for Pau Gasol partway through the 2007-08 season, he immediately legitimized the team and made them instant contenders.

Since then, they have made the Finals every year, winning twice.

Now, however, the Lakers are underperforming: They have a high seed in the West, but they lost their first game to the New Orleans Hornets in a display discouraging to fans like myself.

Why did the Lakers lose this game that they surely should have won? Of course there are multiple reasons behind it, but the most evident was Pau’s weak play; he finished 2-9 from the field for only eight points, in one of his worst performances as a Laker.

If the Lakers wish to win the title again this year (and they surely do), they will need Pau to start playing at the level we all have come to expect from him.

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