Pau Gasol says the Los Angeles Lakers will learn from last season – NBA Update
Spanish international power forward Pau Gasol believes that Los Angeles Lakers have to put the humiliation of last season behind them and learn from their mistakes in order to be successful again.
The super star said he wasn’t pleased with how things transpired in the playoffs, but there was nothing much he could do about it now so it was just better to look ahead.
"Our situation was a very tough challenge. We were up for something that is extremely hard to do, which is win three titles in a row," he told ESPN.
He thought the Lakers should keep their perspective right; winning three consecutive NBA World Championships is no mean feat. Especially when the Lakers had gone to the NBA Finals for the last three years, it took a lot out of
them mentally.
Regardless of that, Pau accepted that the manner of their exit was rather appalling. He stressed though that Los Angeles could only benefit from it by learning and coming back with a new determination to avoid the same mistakes
in the future.
"It happened the way it did, and we have to learn from it, we have to move on. Stop talking about it. We have to keep it in our minds and our hearts, obviously, because it was something that we experienced and it was painful,"
he said. "But now let's move on, and get into the right track as a team, as a group, as a city, as a franchise, and get the ball rolling."
The Lakers had one of the most star studded line-ups in the NBA last season with legendary shooting guard Kobe Bryant, Pau, Andrew Bynum, Derek Fisher and Lamar Odom all proven players. After a stellar regular season though, the
team started to unravel in the playoffs.
They had trouble disposing off the lowly rated New Orleans Hornets and for a game or two point guard Chris Paul was able to seriously expose their defence. They did recover though to win the series in six games.
What happened next though was completely off the script. The Dallas Mavericks, always considers major underperformers, spanked the two-time defending champions in the second round with a 4 – 0 margin.
Los Angles let slip a huge fourth quarter lead in the first game at home, and the Mavericks never looked back. They obliterated the Lakers defence and produced bone chilling performances that left Lakers’ legendary coach Phil Jackson
frustrated on the sidelines.
In the end rumours of a rift within the dressing room emerged after Bynum said the team didn’t trust each other and discipline on the court broke down completely, multiple Lakers ejections proving the point.
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