Inside the locker room

OKLAHOMA CITY -- After the Lakers silenced the Oklahoma City Thunder tonight, center Pau Gasol displayed a nasty cut on his nose. He was whacked in the face while driving to the basket midway through the second quarter and let the referees know they missed the call. In fact, referee Mark Wunderlich admitted he didn't see it.

That was about the only thing that went wrong for the Lakers, who led by 17 points after the first quarter and 24 by halftime.

Said Gasol: "We should try to do that more often, absolutely. It's something that shows character and consistency, and we haven't been able to do that as often as we should. Hopefully, when we get big leads, on the road especially, we should take care of the game and continue to execute and focus on what we do well on every possession."

Kobe Bryant on trying to catch the Cleveland Cavaliers for the top record in the NBA: "It's all about how well we play. We don't care about that (finishing ahead of Cleveland). We want the best record just to have it, just because of the challenge of it, just to say we did it. Outside of that, it's just about getting better."

Coach Phil Jackson on resting his starters in the fourth quarter: "That's OK. We can't complain about that. I think we played all right in first quarter. After that we just kind of toyed with the (Thunder). I didn't like that so much. We never really got back that rhythm we started the game with."