Lakers Edge Hornets, Series Tied 1-1

April 20, 2011 - After what was a shocking loss in the first game of the series, the Los Angeles Lakers came out and defeated the New Orleans Hornets 87-78, evening out the series 1-1. Despite the effort of the Lakers win, they still did not look like a championship caliber team. Andrew Bynum led with 17 points and 11 rebounds in a very physical performance. The 6th Man of the Year Award which went to Lamar Odom, proved to sum up exactly what he is. He played a key role in the game, adding another 16 points. Ron Artest looked to be in playoff fashion once again as he he connected on a couple three pointers and scored 15 points on the night.

Bynum played a big, dominating role in Game 2

Kobe Bryant, who had a poor night going 3-10 on FG with 11 points, still gave great efforts defensively in giving full court pressure on Chris Paul. Paul, who tore the Lakers up in game 1, only had 20 points in game 2. Trevor Ariza however, the talented player the Lakers got rid of, had 22 in the game.

Lamar Odom receiving his award for 6th Man of the Year

The big story of the night in my eyes? One that shows Pau Gasol is not physical at all, and is just too weak of a player. I have been saying it all year, I've even been saying it the past 3 years. Pau Gasol is not aggressive. After a terrible performance in the first game, Gasol did even worse in game 2, going 2-10 in FG with 8 points. Aside from being goofy, and losing the ball at many points in the game, he just couldn't get inside. He would try to post up and just couldn't get it inside the paint. He would either give up and pass the ball, or try to give some moves to get to the basket which didn't work well at all. I stick with my opinion on the matter that Gasol is highly overrated, and I wish they would get a trade for Dwight Howard.

Pau Gasol getting man-handled in the paint and losing the ball? Shocker......

In good news though, the bench players such as Odom showed up big. Matt Barnes flew under the radar a little bit in the game but he played a big role and had many key baskets. At one point, the bench was playing better than the starters were and they were the ones keeping the Lakers in the game.

Game 3 is on Friday night at 9:30 ET on ESPN. The game will be on the road in New Orleans so we'll see how the Lakers hold up, and we'll see if Gasol can do anything to be more physical and score some points to help his team.