The Los Angeles Lakers will have to win Game 5 tonight in Oklahoma City in order to avoid elimination from the playoffs. The Lakers could have been tied 2-2 at this point; however their late game blunders in Game 4 allowed the Thunder to go up 3-1.
After the game, Kobe Bryant told reporters that he wanted Pau Gasol to be more aggressive. Bryant received a lot of backlash from the media for criticizing his teammate, but coach Mike Brown expects everything to be fine.
“They’ve played together too long,” said Brown [ESPN Los Angeles]. “Pau knows how Kobe is. Kobe knows how Pau is and they’ll do a good job of figuring each other out.”
Kobe and Gasol won two consecutive titles together in 2009 and 2010, so both players are quite familiar with each other. Kobe had called out Gasol during the Lakers’ first-round series with the Nuggets and he responded with a double-double. Now it’s time to wait and see what Gasol does tonight with the Lakers facing elimination.
