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All-Star Pau Gasol and reserve Luke Walton sat out Tuesday’s practice witih respective minor injuries.
Lakers spokesman John Black said that Walton was experiencing minor back pain, while Gasol had a slight hamstring strain.
Both players are listed as day-to-day.
If winning his first NBA Championship weren’t enough for one summer, Lakers forward/center Pau Gasol added a EuroBasket title for his native Spain, earning MVP honors in the process.
Prior to EuroBasket - a Euro tournament that not only declares the continent’s best team but also qualifies its top performers for the World Championships - Gasol injured a finger, forcing him to sit out through much of August. Yet he quickly proved the finger not to be an issue by leading all players with 18.7 points and 2.2 blocks per game in the tournament, while finishing second with 8.2 rebounds and a 64.4 percent mark from the field.
MVP, indeed.
Gasol’s performance in the final game, an 85-63 drubbing of Serbia, was consistent with his production throughout as he led Spain with 18 points, 11 rebounds and three blocks. He even out-rebounded Serbia 8-7 by himself in the first half, helping the Spaniards win their first European championship after six second-place finishes.
“It was a great game, and obviously we won the final that we lost twice before this year, so I’m extremely happy and it’s an unforgettable day for us,” Gasol said as reported by the associated press. “We just worked so hard to win this championship and I’m just super proud of my teammates.”
The decisive victory over Serbia was particularly sweet since Spain had opened the tournament with a 66-57 loss to the Serbs. The Spaniards also dropped an early game to Turkey, but much like the Lakers, Spain played their best when they had to, winning their final five games by an average of 21.2 points.
Spain’s run to the championship included an easy 18-point victory over Greece in the semifinals, a 86-66 quarterfinal win over Tony Parker’s French side, a big victory over Poland and a besting of Lithuania.
Next on Gasol’s list: defense of the NBA title. After all, Lakers training camp is just a couple weeks away.
So much for an injured finger.
For the second straight night in EuroBasket 2009, Pau Gasol looked to be in midseason NBA form, leading the Spaniards with 28 points, nine rebounds and three blocks in an impressive 86-66 victory over previously undefeated France.
With the win, Spain not only advances to face the winner of Turkey and Greece on Saturday in the EuroBasket semifinals, but it earns an automatic berth in the 2010 World Championships after guaranteeing themselves a Top 6 EuroBasket finish.
Throughout the game, a France squad featuring NBA players Tony Parker, Ronny Turiaf, Boris Diaw and Nicolas Batum had no answer for Gasol, who routinely had his way around the rim with an array of touch shots, layups and dunks. Gasol also showed some of his 2008-09 playoffs defensive form behind three blocks of Turiaf, causing consistent problems in the paint for France.
Teammate Rudy Fernandez, whose alley-oop pass to Gasol late in the fourth was the game’s final dagger, added 16 points for the Spaniards, while No. 5 overall draft pick Ricky Rubio contributed eight points, four assists and four rebounds. Pau’s brother Marc chipped in six points and five boards in the victory, while Juan Carlos Navarro added 11 points and four dimes.
Parker managed just six points, three assists and a rebound in limited minutes for the French, who were led by 12 points and four boards from Turiaf and nine points with six boards from Diaw.
Spain’s victory came a night after their 90-68 victory over Poland, in which Gasol scored 20 points to go with five rebounds, three assists and three blocks.
Needing a win to advance to the Final 8 in EuroBasket 2009, Spain easily handled host Poland with a 90-68 victory that sends Pau Gasol and his squad into the quarterfinals against undefeated France (5-0).
As reported on EuroBasket.org, L.A.’s power forward had another outstanding all-around game in scoring 20 points, grabbing five rebounds, tossing three assists and swatting three shots. Gasol and teammate Juan Carlos Navarro, formerly of the Memphis Grizzlies, combined for 19 of Spain’s 23 first quarter points, including the first seven from Gasol.
EuroBasket.org recorded Gasol’s postgame comments:
“We had a good performance today,” Gasol said afterwards. “We are growing as a team and we are very much alive in the tournament. It will be a tough game against France but we have to go through them to get anything done here. We very much look forward to it.”
The game against France will take place on Thursday evening.
Throughout L.A.’s 2008-09 campaign, Lakers fans grew accustomed to the elite offensive efficiency of Pau Gasol, who routinely went 9-for-11 (like in Game 3 of the Finals), 8-for-12 (like Game 6 of the Western Finals) or even 12-for-13 (like against Dallas in March).
On Monday evening in Poland, Gasol was at it again, though this time for his National Team, leading Spain to an 84-70 victory with 19 points on 8-of-10 shooting alongside eight rebounds and three blocks.
For full details of Spain’s win, which puts the team in good position to advance to the Final 8 of EuroBasket 2009 (a win against Poland on Wednesday would ensure as much), you can head to Eurobasket.org:
Spain recovered from a slow start to cruise past Lithuania 84-70 in Group F of the EuroBasket 2009 Qualifying Round. The win saw the world champions improve to 3-2 and boosted their chances of reaching the last eight of the competition. Meanwhile, Lithuania dropped to 0-4 and are assured of missing out on the Quarter-Final stages for the first time since 2001. Afterwards, Spain head coach Sergio Scariola was very happy with his team’s performance.
Scariola praised star player Pau Gasol for his performance: “Pau was very important defensively for us. He made one big step forward in terms of intensity and aggressiveness. The team took advantage of this.”
The win came at a key time, as Spain had lost to Hedo Turkoglu’s Turkish squad 63-60 on Saturday. Their tilt against Poland is set to tip off at 6:15 in Lodz, Poland.
Pau Gasol and his Spanish teammates built a 13-point lead heading into the fourth quarter of Wednesday’s EuroBasket showdown with Slovenia, but found themselves in overtime after a furious rally and buzzer-beating jumper that mandated an extra period.
Enter Gasol, who first converted a tough and-1 near the rim and second grabbed an offensive board and stuck it back for five-straight OT points that gave Spain some breathing room. Ultimately, the Spaniards were able to hold on for a 90-84 victory that propelled them into Eurobasket’s next round.
A day after posting 27 points and 11 rebounds in a victory over Great Britain, Gasol’s finished with 13 points, nine rebounds, three assists, two blocks and a steal against a scrambling Slovenian defense that loaded up down low, though his contributions were certainly timely.
Former NBA player Juan Carlos Navarro led Spain with 21 points, while Portland’s Rudy Fernandez added 19.
Spain had previously lost to Serbia but beaten Great Britain, while Slovenia had beaten both, meaning both teams finished at 2-1 in their group. It’s presumed that Spain’s victory over Slovenia would render them the group winners as both advance to the subsequent round.
After a tough first game back from his finger injury in Spain’s opening loss to Serbia, Pau Gasol was back to his dominant self in a 27-point, 11-rebound performance that led Spain to a 84-76 victory over Great Britain as the Spaniards avoided elimination from EuroBasket 2009.
Eurobasket.org described what ended up being a surprisingly close game:
Great Britain used a 12-0 run in the first 3:28 of the fourth quarter to take their first lead, 68-66, on Mike Lenzly’s right corner three-pointer. They went up by as many as four, 73-69, when Jarrett Hart hit a long bomb of his own. Spain answered right back. Rudy Fernandez stepped into the passing lane for a steal and breakaway dunk before Pau Gasol hit a three-pointer from the top of the key with just over three minutes left to edge Spain back in front 74-73. Spain didn’t trail again after that as Gasol and Juan Carlos Navarro sealed the game.
After scoring just nine points and missing all but 1-of-8 free throws in Spain’s Game 1 loss to Serbia, Gasol made 5-of-6 shots from the field, 2-of-2 from three and 11-of-18 free throws to lead the way.
That’s the Pau Lakers fans know.
In his first game since injuring the index finger of his left hand, Pau Gasol scored nine points with seven rebounds in 25 minutes during Spain’s 66-57 loss to Serbia.
Gasol missed the first seven of his eight free throws, and hit only 4-of-9 shots in the loss, a surprising result for many as Spain are the heavy favorite to win the Eurobasket 2009 title.
Gasol, who shot 56.7 percent from the field and 78.1 percent from the line for the Lakers during L.A.’s championship run, may have been bothered by the finger, but he and Spain have a chance to bounce back against Great Britain on Tuesday.
To read a full report of Spain-Serbia game and view the box score, CLICK HERE.
According to Pau Gasol’s website, Lakers trainer Gary Vitti met with Gasol in Barcelona to check on the progress of Gasol’s injured finger.
Pau is about to start playing ball, perhaps this Sunday to coincide with last warm-up game of Spain, in Murcia against Israel. He will not play this game, but perhaps he does it in Lithuania, the last before the European Championship.
The index finger on Gasol’s left hand seems to be progressing according to plan, and the Spanish National Team expects him to return to the court shortly.
***UPDATE 2: The Spanish National Team expects Pau Gasol (finger) to play.
***UPDATE: Sasha Vujacic will not play in the tournament.
On September 7 in Poland, up to three L.A. Lakers could be representing their National Teams in EuroBasket 2009, an international tournament intended to designate Europe’s best team.
Pau Gasol of Spain, Sasha Vujacic of Slovenia and D.J. Mbenga of Belgium, are all expected to play, though Gasol is in the process of recovering from a torn volar plate on the index finger of his left hand. Gasol will be re-evaluated in just over two weeks when Lakers Athletic Trainer Gary Vitti travels to Barcelona.
Gasol and Vujacic’s teams have already qualified for the tournament, while Mbenga’s battling for Belgium to join his Lakers teammates in Poland.
Mbenga (who grew up in Congo, Africa, before moving to Belgium) has averaged 20.3 minutes on the way to 6.3 points and 3.7 rebounds per game for his country. Belgium needs to win its final game in Group A of the Additional Qualifying Round to finish 3-1 and thus advance to play Group B winner France for the right to play at EuroBasket in Poland. Just as the folks in the “Banging with Mbenga” fan club would have expected, D.J. swatted five shots to open the tournament, then contributed seven points and four boards in a 102-79 victory over previously unbeaten Bosnia and Herzegovina to put the Belgians in place to beat Portugal and move on to join Group B, featuring Russia, Germany and Latvia.
Gasol and Vujacic’s countries are both in Group C, widely considered the tournament’s toughest group, which also features former Laker Vladimir Radmanovic’s Serbia as well as Great Britain.
According to Vujacic’s website, he’s been dealing with a sore knee, but began practicing again on Monday, August 14.
Slovenian Basketball Federation national team director Matej Avanzo confirmed that Sasha will be practicing with the team again on Monday and travel with them to Spain for their next match after the games against Croatia.
Stay tuned for further coverage of Gasol, Vujacic and Mbenga as EuroBasket 2009 approaches.
FROM LAKERS.com
