Darren Misener

Fill 'Er Up
It looked like the Lakers were running on a full tank of Gasol on Sunday: 36 points, 15 rebounds and eight assists.

Kobe Bryant's 32 points isn't anything to chuckle at, but it was Pau Gasol that delivered team-highs in points, rebounds AND assists for the Lakers in their Game 1 win over the Nuggets. Pau has been to the playoffs before, but, as Lakers.com reports, this year has a much different meaning.

"With the Grizzlies, through the years that I've been there, it's always been rebuilding, it's been youth, it's been uncertainty, it's been a lot of changes so that doesn't give you any stability or consistency to get to the goals that the Lakers organization has," said Gasol. "We were a good team, a solid team, we had really good regular seasons, but we were inexperienced as far as the playoff level and we paid that price."

Gasol and the entire Lakers squad looked anything but inexperienced in Game 1. Gasol ran the floor with ease and attacked the rim time after time with thunderous jams. Lamar Odom was running the floor with the Spaniard, getting the ball to Pau, and saw something that bodes well for the Lakers in this round and going forward.

"Pau is so versatile, he just opens the game up," Odom said. "He was past good, he was amazing."

Gasol knows the mentality of his new team (he has averaged almost 19 points and eight rebounds since coming to L.A. from Memphis in a mid-season trade) is a focus and drive to win it all, and that's just the way he wants it.

"Winning a championship always been one of my goals and I was hoping before this trade happened, that one day before my career ended that I would have this opportunity," said Gasol. "It came at this time and it is definitely something I want to take advantage of."

36, 15 and 8: So far taking advantage of it has not been a problem.