No real "theme" emerged during today's practice. Which makes sense, as there isn't really much worth a hardcore examination. The Lakers are fresh off back-to-back blow out W's. Pau Gasol is looking very good upon his return from injury. Kobe Bryant is making the kind of shots that typically don't stroke cord without CGI assistance.  It is, as the kids often say, "all good" these days.

But that won't stop me from presenting some talkies from the afternoon's session in El Segundo. Why? Because we care over at Lakers Blog. And you people would hunt us down if we didn't provide the scoop. So there's that, too.

After last night's win over OKC and point guard Russell Westbrook getting held to 2-8 shooting, Scotty Brooks lavished some serious praise on Derek Fisher:

"Derek Fisher never gets enough credit. The guy is a star. He battles and competes. I admire his play every year since he's been in this league. If you want your son to be a point guard, they should look at his tape and be committed to what he does. He plays for the team, and that's what you expect from a point guard at that level. He's an amazing player."

To say the least, flattering words, reflective of a dude who's made a difference as a grinder, not a stat machine. As Fish later noted, the way he plays as a pro is the way he's played his entire life.

Last Thursday, Kobe Bryant passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar and moved into second place on the all-time franchise scoring list (video here). Assuming a) good health, and b) Adidas doesn't issue a kryptonite weave- all at once breathable, moisture-wicking, and debilitating- for their authentic NBA jerseys, at some point this year he'll pass Jerry West for the top spot. Given the way players move from team to team in the modern era, once Kobe gets there then adds another near-decade of tallies, it's hard for me to picture anyone passing him.

His accomplishment led to some energetic debate around town regarding Kobe's present-and-future place in LA's substantial basketball pantheon. Where is he now? Where will he stand when it's all over? The greatest ever? Spectacular, but still be behind Magic? Or Kareem? West? Elgin Baylor? Some combination of those iconic figures? Which leads to today's poll:

Come to think of it, the whole freakin' night was really about the repeated stealing of thunder, in one form or another. 

In their own right, OKC entered Staples Center on quite the little roll.  7-6 (at the time).  Above .500 on the road. One hellvua young nucleus being hyped as one of the new teams worth watching.  But there's potential and there's reality.  The Thunder may be on their way, but the Lakers have clearly arrived.  A fact clearly, quickly, and- eventually- flashily established during a 101-85 hometown victory.

As BK and I noted during the postgame breakdown, there were fundamentals a-plenty on display to complement the "big top" moments.   The Lakers played excellent defense, took hawkish care of the ball while forcing it out of the Thunderians' mitts, took advantage of Andrew Bynum and Pau Gasol's increasingly fluid teamwork and whipped the ball around with ease.  Similar tasks to those on the Thunder's "to do" list, but the difference in achievement was very pronounced.

Also pronounced was the entertainment factor throughout.

Sunday funday, indeed.

Breakdown below.

Okay, Kobe Bryant, I'll see your behind the backboard shot and raise you one of these:

After the game, Kobe said nobody he's seen- whether teammates, opponents, or himself- gets up like Shannon Brown. He never saw AK pre-ACL injury, but that aside, who am I to argue?  I was fortunate enough to be on the side of the floor where the oop went down, and fair to say it led to a momentary suspension of the standard media-row prohibition on "Holy **@&#!" reactions to on-court events. That play could have raised the dead.

More on the game to come.

BK

From Sunday's game against the Thunder. The next guy to shoot is almost guaranteed to get an "H..."

For his next trick, I want to see Kobe do this...

BK

Q: Who are the Lakers playing tonight?

Answer?

The jabber box is below.

AK

The headline sums things up pretty well...

...but we've been told our posts need to be...

...at least three lines long so they can be picked up by Google searches.

BK

In conjunction with their annual Chick Hearn Night, the Lakers are conducting a drive for new children's books. Donations can be made from 4:30-6:30 pm at the Star Plaza entrance at Staples. All books will be donated in memory of Chick to Everybody Wins! Los Angeles (learn more about them here), and fans who kick in will receive a 2009-2010 Lakers pin.

It's a great cause, and a fantastic way to help honor the memory of an LA icon.

BK

 You've watched your Sunday news programs. You're settling into a day of football. That doesn't mean you can't take in a little Lakers news in anticipation of tonight's game against the Oklahoma City Thunder at Staples. This is the age of wireless internet and endless gadgetry. Multitask. The Lakers have a few things on their to-do list, if you ask Phil Jackson. He'd love to see fewer turnovers (14.7 per game, 13th in the league). And there's no such thing as too much defense, either. That could be tightened up (at nearly 102, the Lakers are 8th in the NBA in points per 100 possessions).

Of course, Jackson is also quick to note that it takes more than 12 games to really understand where a team stands on big picture issues. Call it a tribute to sample size. 

A well run pick and roll is a great thing to watch, impossible to defend completely given the right personnel. That doesn't mean I want to see it all the time. But as Jonathan Abrams of the New York Times confirms and quantifies here, increasingly in today's NBA, it's a P and R world, the rest of us are just passengers.

The Lakers, who originated only 11% of their offensive plays last year through the set writes Abrams, are an exception. Fans and the game are better for it.

LA's offense demands players think and interpret, share the ball, display a varied skill set, and move in space. It thrives on players with basketball intellect who understand the relationship between their play and the four other guys on the floor. I appreciate the balance the triangle creates between a strong coaching hand necessary to implement, teach, and perfect the system with the trust given to players to do it properly once games start, and how it defines roles without mandating exactly how they be filled on every trip down the floor. (No question some of this is a byproduct of Phil Jackson's coaching style, but the style is also a reflection of the system.) Done right, the Lakers' offense is elevated stuff in a lowest common denominator world, a throwback to days when the sports world (the whole world, really) wasn't wasn't continuously dissected in a way too often requiring players and coaches to take the path of least resistance.

Given the number of Lakers I (and most of you) watch, that their games don't look the same as every other team in the league is particularly appealing. Expect the Lakers to do it well, but celebrate that they do it differently. Appreciate that the Lakers can run great pick and rolls with most of their roster (particularly Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol), but don't need it to generate looks. Get excited by the understanding that even on days when the Lakers don't look good, they'll almost always still produce a handful of exceptional plays on the offensive end.

(I now step off the soap box... click below for more Lakers and NBA news.)

(Self Promotional Notes: Don't forget to download this week's 710 ESPN.com Lakers PodKast, and to follow us on the Twitter at latimesKbros. Finally, AK and I are the, ahem, "personalities" representing 710 ESPN at this poker tourney at Hollywood Park Casino. Apparently, there's a bounty on our heads. Not for capturing us Boba Fett style for delivery to Jabba the Hutt, but rather knocking us out of the event. Come down/up/over and play if you can. That is all... for now. Moving on...)

Sorry for what will be a brief report from Friday afternoon's practice in El Segundo, but it's nearly Mom K's birthday, and that gift won't buy itself. I need to do a little shopping this afternoon. But I digress... There are two bits of genuine news to report. First, Andrew Bynum didn't practice, but instead received treatment on the ankle he turned in Thursday's win over Chicago. It included lasers, and while they were mounted on the heads of neither sharks nor sea bass, they ought to help reduce swelling in the area. He expects to play Sunday against Oklahoma City.

Pau Gasol, who made his season debut last night, did practice, working through the natural soreness that comes with the first game after a long layoff. He was quick to note, as you'll see in the videos below, that none of said aches were located in the bum right hamstring that kept him out of the season's first 11 games. 

Click below for today's moving pictures...

Or A.B.A.U., for the acronymically* inclined...

No surprise, after turning his right ankle in the third quarter of Thursday's 108-93 win over the Bulls, Andrew Bynum didn't practice Friday afternoon in El Segundo, instead receiving treatment ranging from medicine to ice to something he called a "laser level," which I always thought was used to hang picture frames properly. (Note: If my Google skills are worth their salt, I'm pretty sure he meant a low-level laser, which is used to help reduce swelling.)

"It was sorer than last night, he said. "I left last (the arena) last night without doing (any heavy treatment) because I was, you know, trying to walk it off, but it stiffened up this morning." Still, just as he did Thursday, Bynum said he doesn't expect to miss any games. "The ankle is alright. It's not too serious. I should be back by Sunday,"

Generally speaking, the best way to judge the severity of a Bynum injury is to measure the reactions of those around him, since Drew is notoriously bad at self-diagnosis. In that regard, nobody seemed too concerned. More to come from Friday's run.

BK

*new word

The two part presentation remains intact.  And in honor Pau Gasol's return, the sections will be titled in Spanish.  We're bridging the gap like that.

Part Uno

    -We discuss what the return of Pau Gasol means to the Lakers.  Through eleven games, the Lakers have been mostly solid, occasionally fantastic, occasionally bad, but rarely resembling the one that took home an O'Brien last June.  As we noticed last night, Pau's presence goes a long way towards restoring that dominance.  Between his scoring abilities, passing skills, underrated D and general smarts, an awful lot has been brought to the table.
    -Lamar Odom will now guide the bench, and at the risk of sounding critical, they're in need of guidance.  Beyond the attention he draws as a focal point, LO can make plays for others as well as himself, areas where Jordan Farmar, Shannon Brown, et al often struggled when asked to do both.  That Luke Walton will miss six weeks (at least) accentuated even more the need for, at the very least, a table setting presence.
    -We recap Ren McCormick's battle to express himself through dancing as a Beaumont teenager.  (Judging by this trailer, the folks over at Paramount decided this tale might be too convoluted to explain in 90-ish seconds, so they instead opted to go heavy on the Loggins, light on any explanation of what the hell the movie's actually about.  Judging by the box office bankroll, a wide choice.)

Hamstring!

It sounds like a bad musical, but really, it was just the major running subplot for the Lakers over their first 11 games as they waited for Pau Gasol's balky hammy to heal up. Thursday night, the curtain finally rose on Gasol's '09-'10 season, and the reviews (I'm already sick of this metaphor, but it's too late to turn back) were sterling. Tony Award quality, even. (Wow, that last one made me cringe... hackneyed, thy name is me.) 24 points, 13 boards, 35 minutes as the Lakers knocked off the Bulls 108-93. 

Gasol didn't expect so many minutes, or to be quite so effective, while taking advantage of an undersized Chicago frontcourt around the basket on both sides of the floor.   He seemed to have plenty of polish for a guy having played less full court hoops than most rec warriors over the last six weeks.

Nor was he the only positive from Thursday's easy win. With 21 points, Kobe Bryant passed Kareem Abdul-Jabbar (yes, the actor) and moved into second place on the list of all-time Lakers scoring leaders, trailing only Jerry West (yes, the actor) on one of the most impressive lists in basketball, given the talent the franchise has seen (Kobe talks about it here). The box score also notes four other Lakers in double figures, including a perfect shooting night for Derek Fisher.  The only real negative was a jammed right ankle for Andrew Bynum, suffered in the second half. He's listed as day-to-day, and we'll learn more about his condition today at practice.

With Gasol, the Lakers look like the Lakers, creating matchup problems all over the floor. "They have a lot of weapons. And talent," said Bulls coach Vinny Del Negro. "It's one thing to be tall, but there's also being tall and talented, and they got both. So that helps."

More Lakers news, notes, and thoughts below...

Oh, FYI. Here's a stat to think on: The Lakers have NEVER lost a regular game in which Pau Gasol and Ron Artest played as teammates. Not a typo. I checked with the eggheads over at Elias. 

NEVER.

Betcha didn't know that one, people!

The breakdown is below (and for those who missed BK's earlier post, Andrew Bynum jammed his right ankle and is day-to-day heading into Sunday's contest against Oklahoma City).

Pau Gasol's return to the court was a good one Thursday night at Staples- 24 points, 13 rebounds- as the Lakers (wait for it...) ran the Bulls (ha!) by a final score of 108-93. The only sour note? Andrew Bynum left the game midway through the third quarter and didn't return, suffering what was called a jammed right ankle. He's officially listed as day-to-day.

"I'm gonna see how it feels in the morning," he said, "but I should be okay. No treatment, just ice. I'll be ready for Sunday."

Bynum indicated that not re-entering the game was based less on worries of serious injury and more on the score- with the Lakers up big, there was no reason to screw around. We'll learn more at practice Friday afternoon, but for now there doesn't seem to be overwhelming reason for concern.

More on the game to come.

BK

Question: If Pau has an absolutely dominating debut, will that lead to a role on CSI: New York? Discuss.

The jabber box is below.

AK

Some things these guys said before tonight's game vs. Chicago, the first Pau Gasol will play for the Lakers this season...

Andrew Bynum:

Q: Are there enough touches for you to keep your early season scoring going?

"I think so. I may have to be a little bit more efficient, but I think so."

Q: What's it been like for you to be such a focal point of the offense?

Turnabout being the essence of fair play, of course.

Tuesday, I asked a sincerely innocuous question regarding Pau Gasol being potentially "gun shy" about risking re-injury to his troublesome hamstring with a return to the court. Phil Jackson, rarely reluctant to tweak a player, asked if I meant that Gasol was a "hypochondriac" and a "baby."  Taking it up a notch, he proceeded to tweak his All-Star forward's performance on CSI: Miami.  After kidding that Gasol actually injured himself in a scene where he pulled an accident victim from of a burning car and expressing disbelief that people even watch this show in the first place, his advice given to Pau was shared:

"I told him to keep his night job."

Naturally, El Spaniard was informed of el smack during Wednesday's practice. He took it all in stride, focusing on the good feedback he received from "most of the population" and the enjoyment gained from the experience. "If Phil doesn't like it, it's all good," shrugged Gasol.  Another writer mentioned that Phil's not really one to talk, since his most recent gig in front of the camera involved no talking whatsoever. That's when Pau offered a jab of his own --"well, his acting wasn't too good, either"-- followed by an impression of his coach's handiwork.

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

And as Pau noted, "He got paid, for sure."

AK