The Lakers have now played 4 games without Kobe Bryant, and last night’s game was the first close one out of those 4.  The Warriors tied the game at 89 with 4:37 left.  The Lakers then went out on a 7 point run, effectively putting the Warriors out of reach.  After Ron Artest made a foul shot, the Lakers went inside to Pau Gasol.  In fact, he went on to score the next 6 points.  The Warriors really had no answer (they tried using Ronny Turiaf) to defend Gasol, so the Lakers went to him time and time again:

Lamar Odom pulls down a rebound and brings it up court.  This is a pretty common sight if you are a Lakers’ fan.  Odom is a terrific rebounder, but he also has the ball handling ability to bring the ball up the court as well.

What is different is when it gets to the halfcourt.  Instead of getting the ball into Kobe’s hands, Odom holds onto it and and Pau comes over to set the screen for him.  Now this isn’t a “true Pick & Roll,” it is just designed to try and get Gasol in a good post position.

As you can see, Odom doesn’t really try to penetrate off the pick, he just gives it a second, and gets the ball inside to Gasol.  Now look where he catches it.  Since the Warriors have nobody to bang with him inside he will be able to take his time and getting into scoring position.

Remember where he caught it?  Well, look where he is now.  Right in the block, and he pulls off a very nice spin move and finishes with the lay-in.

Now I am not saying that they don’t go into Gasol late when Kobe is in the game, they do, but it always seems to be a second or third option (and not that I blame Kobe, who is a great scorer).  Without Kobe in the game, it is obvious that the Lakers are actively looking to get the ball to Pau late, and against the Warriors (a team with no real big man), that makes sense.