Adding Pau Gasol to their roster has made the Los Angeles Lakers much more dangerous -- especially to the Charlotte Bobcats.
Gasol will be trying to help the Lakers beat the struggling Bobcats for the first time in four games as the teams meet in Charlotte on Monday.
The Lakers (33-17) acquired Gasol in a Feb. 1 trade with Memphis and have gone 3-1 with him in the lineup. Gasol has averaged 19.5 points and 8.8 rebounds in those four games, and had 12 points in Sunday's 104-94 win in Miami .
Gasol combines with Kobe Bryant, who ranks second in the league with 27.9 points per game, to give the Lakers one of the more potent one-two punches in the NBA. Bryant had 33 points against the Heat for his second straight 30-point game after totaling just 17 points in his first two with Gasol.
"I'm very excited to be here, and the system is great," Gasol said. "You just have to know where to be and find out the options you have in the system. I'm comfortable, and I'm going to get more comfortable."
The Lakers' acquisition of Gasol could be especially bad news for the Bobcats (18-33) on Monday. In six career games against the Bobcats, Gasol has averaged 23.7 points -- his second-most against any team, behind the 23.8 he has averaged against Cleveland .
He has scored a total of 59 points in his last two games against Charlotte , including a 28-point performance in a 105-87 Memphis loss on Jan. 19.
Bryant, meanwhile, has averaged 37.2 points in five career games against the Bobcats -- easily his highest against any team. He has scored at least 30 points four times, including a 58-point effort in a 133-124 triple-overtime defeat in Charlotte on Dec. 29, 2006.
However, the Lakers have not defeated the Bobcats since a 99-98 home win on Dec. 4, 2005. The all-time series between the teams is tied at 3 games, and the last two meetings have gone into overtime.
The Bobcats have lost six in a row, including Sunday's 113-87 defeat in Detroit . Jason Richardson had a game-high 27 points for Charlotte , which is one defeat shy of matching its longest losing streak of the season, set Nov. 21-Dec. 5.
The Bobcats trailed 27-7 nine minutes in and were never able to catch up.
"We played hard from the second quarter on to the fourth," point guard Raymond Felton told the Bobcats' official team Web site. "We picked it up and played with some pride, but we got behind and it was just hard to recover."
Gerald Wallace, who leads the team with 21.2 points per game, did not play because of a right foot strain.
The Lakers, meanwhile, improved to 5-2 on its current nine-game road trip on Sunday. Lamar Odom chipped in 15 points and 18 rebounds against the Heat.
"We feel pretty good. We're playing well," Bryant said. "We feel like we gave away a couple of games on this trip, to be honest. We feel we should be 7-0 right now."
Other Lakers Bobcats News
02/11/08 - Bobcats News
Future Sports Star:
Kevin Love
Kevin Love has shown a skill level that is absolutely unheard of amongst big men in the college ranks—knocking down NBA 3-pointers with ease, putting the ball on the floor with either hand, using pump-fakes, spin-moves, jump-stops and creating his own shot with fantastic footwork. He’s rebounding the ball well, throwing beautiful outlet passes, contesting shots around the basket, and even coming up with a few blocks on occasion.
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