During the loss to the Grizzlies, Pau Gasol was benched in the fourth quarter against his former team and raised a lot of questions about whether or not he’d already fallen out of favor with new head coach Mike D’Antoni.
D’Antoni claimed that he wanted to win the game and that was his reasoning for Gasol’s benching as the veteran forward simply wasn’t getting the job done. One night later on the road against the Dallas Mavericks, Gasol was benched again in the fourth quarter, but this time it was for a different reason entirely according to Mike Bresnahan of the L.A. Times:
Gasol looked more like himself Saturday and was held out of the fourth quarter as a reward, not a punishment, while the Lakers crushed the Dallas Mavericks, 115-89, at American Airlines Center.
Apparently, Gasol has been playing through knee tendinitis for quite some time via Bresnahan:
He also had a revelation after the game. He has been battling knee tendinitis for over a month.
“It’s something that has been lingering since this preseason. I’ve been dealing with it the best I can,” he said.
With Gasol putting up solid numbers in the rout of the Mavs with 13 points and nine rebounds, the tendinitis isn’t greatly affecting his play.
Fortunately, with players like Jordan Hill and Antawn Jamison able to come off the bench and get the job done at power forward, Gasol won’t be leaned on as much this season if the tendinitis continues to be a problem.
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