Getting Pau involved

Eight shots. In 42 minutes of play in Tuesday's loss to the New Orleans Hornets, that was the extent of Lakers forward Pau Gasol's involvement in the offense and he wasn't exactly thrilled by it.

``It's hard because you don't get in any rhythm,'' Gasol said. ``And obviously playing 42 minutes, eight shots for me might not be enough.

``The game didn't go my way I guess. I try not to be too worried about that, but obviously when you lose, it maximizes it a little bit.''

Afterwards, when I chatted with Gasol he said he was more frustrated by the loss than angry about his lack of involvement and didn't want to turn it into an issue.

``I think we had the two main bigs in foul trouble in the first half and we did not do a good job of recognizing that,'' he said. ``We didn't punish them, and I think it was a mistake.''

Gasol admitted that he could've crashed the offensive glass harder, and perhaps generated some second-chance points. But rebounding was a bit difficult Tuesday because so many of the Lakers misses came off of 3-pointers, which generally create long rebounds.

Neglecting to get Gasol touches has been a constant theme for the Lakers this season. And whenever it happens more than one or two games in a row, Lakers coach Phil Jackson has generally come out publicly and called on the team to make a point of feeding its second-leading scorer.

When asked about Gasol's lack of shots in Tuesday's game, Lakers guard Kobe Bryant offered another theory ... and some advice to the lanky Spaniard.

``He feels uncomfortable just catching and shooting,'' Bryant said. ``I tell him: `You can shoot the ball 25 times. You catch the ball and a guy's hands are down, just shoot it.'

``It's an adjustment to make, and that's what we need him to do. If he's got the ball and a guy's hands are down, just shoot it right in his face.''