Brother to Brother

It's amazing that no matter how much a younger sibling tries, it's hard for them to get the better of the older bro. Take Marc Gasol of the Grizzles for instance. Look at the moves he put on older brother Pau in last night's match-up against the Lakers:




I didn't even know Marc could move like that. Nice use of the pivot, nice spins. Pretty Nifty stuff.
And check out the stats.
Marc: 20 points, 11 rebounds
Pau: 14 points, 5 rebounds

But despite individual performances, in the end it was the Lakers that won the game in double overtime. And let's not lose sight of the fact that Marc had 25 points on 10-25 shooting, while Pau was slightly more efficient at 6-14 shooting. Plus, Pau had 8 assists. Perhaps with age you realize that sometimes less is more.

Speaking of the older guys.
How amazing is it that the Lakers, at 26-16, have the third best record in the west right now?
How is this even possible? They lost Lamar Odom and didn't address any of their weaknesses.
It certainly pays to have a guy named Kobe - who is averaging 31 points a game with a broken nose. But it also helps to have perhaps the best front court in the NBA in Pau and Andrew Bynum.

Interestingly, it seems Pau is settling into more of a role player position while Bynum emerges as the Lakers 2nd option and perhaps most dominate player on the team. In the Lakers win over the Celtics, Bynum had 20 points and 14 rebounds. Last night in their win at Memphis, he had 37 points on 15-18 shooting to go along with 16 rebounds. At 25 years of age, Bynum is averaging career highs in points (17) and rebounds (13) this season.

Any chance the Lakers could add a point guard (Nash) before the trade deadline?
Any chance Kobe can continue to evolve his game and play more pick and role with his bigs and feed them more in the post - including in clutch situations?

Even if they don't add a new face and keep the team in tact the way it is - would it be too much to say that the Lakers can come out of the west?

I guess being older does have it's benefits.